TREVISO – A week after the referral for investigations by the Belluno Health Directorate, the funeral of Don Luigi Bassetto, an 80-year-old parish priest who died in Feltre hospital on the 19th of last year due to an alleged excessive injection, took place yesterday morning in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. of morphine. The Belluno Prosecutor’s Office has opened a case of manslaughter against a young nurse who administered the lethal dose. However, Don Luigi’s death did not come as a surprise to those who were close to him in recent months: 4 years ago he had suffered a stroke and since then “you suffered a lot, in body and soul until the end”, says Mrs. Diana, who was close to the priest and whom he considered like a second mother. “The suffering overwhelmed you without asking your permission, as often happens”, continued the woman in front of the faithful, including the fathers of the Somasca congregation, who came to pay their final farewell to the brother who on 9 April 2021 had celebrated the 50. of priesthood in the church of the castle of Quero, home of the Somaschi. During the function, together with Don Ottavio, parish priest of the community of Madonna Granda, Don Josè, father general of the congregation, also joined in the remembrance, who thanked Father Luigi “for his generosity and for the good he has done”.
THE LEGACY
Many remember the affection and warmth that the priest had left in the Treviso parish of which he had been a point of reference for 10 years, from 2000 to 2010, and then for a brief return in 2018. “He leaves us as a legacy – remarked Don Ottavio – the encouragement not to stop in the face of trials, in the face of difficulties”. “You knew how to love by name every face you met”, recalls a faithful with emotion. “A testimony imbued with charity”, continues a representative of the community of San Cipriano, Don Luigi’s hometown where his brothers live and to which he was very attached. The celebration ends with the notes of the song “Amazing Grace”, in a touching version arranged with bagpipes that involves those present in a moved silence followed by thunderous applause as the coffin comes out.
Father Luigi Bassetto, funeral blocked less than 24 hours before the ceremony. Autopsy ordered on the body of the parish priest
SERENITY
Although the reasons for his death still await answers, the Somascan Fathers and the people who were close to him imagine him “running happily, barefoot with his beloved bicycle”, ready to meet his parents and grandparents to whom he was very close. Don Luigi himself, in the homily given during the Eucharist on the 50th anniversary of his ordination, had said that he was not afraid of death, indeed, “death does not scare me, it will be what will introduce me to what is the goal of our existence: the encounter with God”. Resuming his thought, Mrs. Diana, witness to Don Luigi’s last memories, addresses those present through his words: “You told me not to tell others to be unhappy because the grain of wheat that you sowed will become a great ear of wheat”.
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