First a collection of signatures among the citizens, now a letter to the Pope: in Vigevano the six nuns remaining in the House of Magdalene nuns, Daughters of Jesus the Good Shepherd they will have to leave, and the religious community will be closed after 145 years. Unless there is intervention from above.
That’s why the mayor of Vigevano Andrea Ceffa, a member of the Northern League, wrote a letter to Pope Francis asking him to intervene to allow the nuns to remain in the ducal city to which they are very attached; in recent weeks more than two thousand citizens of Vigevano had signed a petition asking to block the transfer of the nuns, scheduled for June 29th.
The mayor speaks of “a request that comes directly from the hearts of the many citizens that I have the honor of representing, and of whom I act as spokesperson, sharing it firsthand, both as a citizen and as a believer”. “A little over a month ago we learned with amazement, disbelief and pain – he writes -, the news of the closure of the House of the Maddalene Sisters Daughters of Jesus the Good Shepherd of Vigevano, at the disposal of the Generalate of Piacenza and of Father Commissioner Gianfranco Lunardon of Rome. My letter, which interprets a will that emerged from the city council and other city authorities, is aimed at requesting your intervention so that the nuns do not leave their convent”.
According to what Ceffa states, the nuns have repeatedly expressed their desire to “continue their mission among our community which has always considered them a point of reference, just as thousands of citizens want it”. However, the Diocese approved the transfer request made by the mother general of the congregation of the daughters of Jesus the Good Shepherd of Piacenza to which the sisters belong, sister Franca Barbieri. Request made because four of the six nuns are very old and would now struggle to carry on the mission: for this reason the Mother General decided to transfer them to Piacenza, where they could be assisted by their sisters, and to move the two younger nuns to other religious communities.
