The phenomenon of vocational crisis is making its impact increasingly felt and in Modena the mergers of the city parishes foreseen by a decree of Archbishop Erio Castellucci dating back to 2019 continue. In the historic center in recent years they have gone from seven to three: Sant’Agostino, San Barnaba and a part of the Cathedral; San Biagio, San Giuseppe (Temple) and another part of the Cathedral and, lastly, the union between San Francesco and San Pietro arrived, not without some discontent. Now, however, it is the turn of another part of the city and on Monday evening the first united pastoral council was held: the parishes of San Faustino, which overlooks via Giardini and the street of the same name, and of the Beata Vergine Addolorata (Bva) of via Guido Rangoni, who will begin the new calendar year united from 2025.
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He will be the parish priest of the new unified parish Don Guido Bennati, current parish priest of San Faustino, who will avail himself of the collaboration of Don Celestino Ezemadubom, current parish priest of Bva. «The main reason for the mergers is due to the lack of priests – confirms Monsignor Giuliano Gazzetti, vicar general of the Diocese of Modena-Nonantola – it is therefore an absolutely necessary and inevitable process, which not only concerns the Modena area, but the entire Church in general , in this case in Italy. In all likelihood – continues Monsignor Gazzetti – the union of San Faustino and the Bva will not be the last: we will proceed further, but there is no well-established plan on which parishes will be affected which concerns our entire province. We will proceed according to the conditions that will arise as time passes and which may require the need to join forces to be sustainable. It is clear that, in our province, some parishes in the mountain area could be more subject to merging: this not only due to the lack of priests, but also due to the depopulation that those areas have been experiencing for years. The important thing, however, despite there being understandable resistance from some parishioners to these mergers – underlines the vicar – is that we look to the future in a positive and proactive way”.
«The line followed by the archbishop – specifies Don Guido Bennati, parish priest of San Faustino – was then to unite a very large parish from the point of view of the number of faithful it welcomes, such as that of San Faustino (there are more than 10 thousand people ) to a much smaller one, the Bva, which has approximately 3,500 parishioners. We have thus begun a journey together, meeting on Monday in the first joint pastoral council – informs the Don – to begin to get to know each other and listen to each other, trying to make this need for communion a new beautiful opportunity”.
Don Bennati, however, does not hide the fact that among the parishioners there is no lack of rigidity and resistance to this new condition, especially on the part of older people: «Young people are obviously more ready for change – concludes the don – and they know how to see the opportunities. However, I am certain that if we walk side by side, in communion, we will soon all be able to reap the advantages of this new situation, both at the level of administration and, above all, of human capital.”
