00 16/08/2009 21:41




Posted 8/12/09 in the BENEDICT thread:


For this item, thanks to Lella and her blog



Tentative program for Pope's visit
to Brescia on November 8

by MASSIMO TEDESCHI
Translated from

August 11, 2009


The Holy Father's visit to Brescia on November 8 is shaping up and appears to include the following:

A visit to the memorial in the central Piazza della Loggia to the eight persons killed and 94 injured by a bomb that went off during a demonstration in May 1984. Members of a neo-fascist group along with high-ranking members of the local carabinieri were later tried for the crime.

A Mass at the Piazza Paolo VI.

A meeting with the faithful of Concesio, the suburban town where Paul VI was born.

Inaugurating the new headquarters of the Istituto Paolo VI located next to the Montini family home. Here, he is expected to make a major address on the life and work of Papa Montini.

It is also thought he may make a stop in the morning at Botticino, another Brescia suburb, to pay homage to St. Arcangelo Tadini, one of the saints he canonized last April.

Tadini (1846-1912) was a model parish priest who tirelesssly promoted the sacraments and the liturgy, but also, at the time of the Industrial Revolution, worked actively in behalf of workers and their families and founded the order of the Workers' Sisters of the Holy House of Nazareth.

The program will be finalized after an on-site visit expected in the next several days by Vatican security and representatives of the Pontifical Household.

Brescia mobilized twice before for a pastoral visit by John Paul II - in September 1982 and again in September 1998.

In announcing Benedict XVI's visit last April, Bishop Luciano Monari said: "The reason for this visit is the 30th anniversary of the death of Paul VI. [One year late, because last August 6 was the 31st anniversary.] Papa Ratzinger was made a cardinal by Paul VI and has always shown great love and appreciation for our Brescian Pope. So he will come and share with us a day which shall be one of great communion and prayer".

The Pope will be arriving at Ghedi airport around 9 a.m., and it is during the trip from the airport to the center of Brescia that he may make the stop at Botticino to venerate St. Arcangelo Tadini.

In this case, he would meet the faithful briefly at the central square which is surrounded by all the principal places in which the saint carried out his pastoral work and apostolate.


[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/08/2009 22:52]