Just a few days ago, in one of the squares in the historic center of Pistoia, a demonstration was held during which the demonstrators expressed their solidarity with Palestine. And in addition to the local section of Rifondazione Comunista and the exponents of “Non una di meno” (with the transfeminist association that joined the sit in in the final part of the initiative) among the participants there was also Don Massimo Biancalani as far as apparently, who said he was in solidarity with the Palestinian people. To remove any doubt about his position on the topic and his participation in the event held in the historic center of the Tuscan city was the “migrants’ parish priest” himself, who in a post published on his Facebook page also “posted” a photo in the which is seen next to some demonstrators and three Palestinian flags.
“In solidarity with the Palestinian people”, he wrote in the margin of the photographs. A concept that you then reiterated yesterday during the mass celebrated in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Vicofaro: on the sheet available to the faithful to follow the liturgical function, which Don Biancalani himself made known on social media, there is in fact an intervention by the Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah who focuses attention on Rafah. While Don Massimo thinks about Palestine, the problems that the inhabitants of Vicofaro have been denouncing for years do not seem to have been resolved, identifying the main cause in the parish’s reception experience. Just under two weeks ago, the Residents’ Committee for Vicofaro had in fact made official the content of a letter in which the critical hygiene issues identified by the Local Health Authority in the recent past (between rat colonies and precarious hygienic-sanitary conditions) which would put at risk the health of the inhabitants of the hamlet.
Critical issues which in their opinion derive, as mentioned, from the activity of hospitalitygiven that over a hundred young people would find room in the parish premises foreigners without however having adequate toilet facilities available. He made accusations that Don Biancalani sent back to the sender, even though he himself has repeatedly reiterated that he is doing everything possible with the tools available and complaining about the lack of adequate support from the institutions in managing reception.
But despite the recent mediation and “pacification” intervention of the bishop of Pistoia, Fausto Tardelli, relations between Don Massimo and a significant part of the inhabitants of the neighborhood now seem to be at an all-time low. And definitely compromised.
