PESCARA. “No formal request has been received regarding the reopening of the Church of the Transfiguration, closed the day after Easter.” The clarification comes from the Archbishop’s Curia of Pescara – Penne, which appears willing to listen to the requests of the Colle Marino community, “trying to find a meeting point with the citizens of the area, once the ongoing electoral campaign is over”. The answer came after a few days Maria Rita Carrotmunicipal councilor for culture, asked for the reopening of the parish.
The church in question belongs territorially to that of Christ the King, to the Jesuits, and at least until Easter it managed to guarantee, first with the help of the Jesuit priests and in the last period with the support of Don Ubaldo Orlandelli, the celebration of only one mass per week, on Sundays or holidays. Then, due to lack of available prelates, it closed. «This means depriving many elderly or disabled people in the neighborhood of the possibility of attending Holy Mass, forcing them to fall back on televised celebrations, which do not allow them to participate in the Eucharist», underlines Carota. «And it is for this segment of the population that the community of Colle Marino asks for the collaboration of the Church and the bishop in restoring that one holy festive mass». And the councilor retraces the stages that led to the current situation. After the national Eucharistic Congress which was held in Pescara in 1977 by will of the bishop Iannucci the parish of the Transfiguration was erected, entrusting its leadership to Don Rinaldo Lavezzo, which remained until August 2009, the year of its transfer to San Panfilo, Spoltore. Since then, closures and reopenings have alternated, with reduced pastoral activities, also due to the extraordinary maintenance work on the parish headquarters by the Municipality, owner of the building. In 2020 the church was annexed to the parish of Cristo Re, governed by the Jesuit fathers, who guaranteed the Sunday Eucharistic celebration. But last September the parish priest of Cristo Re communicated about the lack of prelates available to ensure the mass. The last celebration was on March 31st.
