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Monsignor Domenico Battaglia new archbishop of Naples. In this archive image, his episcopal ordination in 2016 in Catanzaro – Archivio Avvenire
The Archdiocese of Naples has a new pastor. The election of Pope Francis fell on Monsignor Domenico Battaglia, 57 years old, originally from Satriano in the province of Catanzaro, from 2016 Bishop of Cerreto Sannita-Telese- Sant’Agata dei Goti in Campania.
He replaces Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, 77, at the head of the Neapolitan diocese since 2006. The announcement was made at 12 o’clock, the day the Church celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe, simultaneously by the Vatican Press Office and the Neapolitan Curia.
Monsignor Battaglia carried out his philosophical-theological studies at the Pontifical Regional Seminary “San Pio X” of Catanzaro and was ordained a priest on February 6, 1988 by Antonio Cantisani, archbishop of Catanzaro-Squillace, in Satriano in the Church of Santa Maria di Altavilla . From 1989 to 1992 he was rector of the Catanzaro high school seminary and of the diocesan commission “Justice and Peace”. Then, until 1999, he was a parish administrator in Sant’Elia, pastor of the Virgen del Carmine in Catanzaro, director of the diocesan office of “Missionary Cooperation between Churches”, pastor in Satriano. He was a collaborator of the “Santa Maria delle Grazie” Sanctuary in Torre di Ruggiero, a parish collaborator in Montepaone Lido and administrator of the “Santa Maria di Altavilla” parish in Satriano.
During this pastoral activity within the Archdiocese of Catanzaro-Squillace he has always been interested in the weakest and most marginalized, so much so that he was called “priest of the street.” A commitment effectively described in two publications: “The poor are always right. Stories of street priests by Mimmo Battaglia and Virginio Colmegna ”, published in 2010 by Cittadella Editrice, and“ Old slippers… shoes of angels. The tenderness of a priest on his way with the little ones ”, printed in 2012 by Edizioni Insieme.
The commitment of Monsignor Battaglia in favor of the most unfortunate that was also expressed, from 1992 until the episcopal appointment in 2016, in the guide of “Calabria Solidarity Center“, A community dedicated to the treatment and recovery of people who suffer from drug addiction, linked to the Therapeutic Communities (FICT) of Don Mario Picchi, Federation of which he was national president from 2006 to 2015. While from 2000 to 2006 he was vice president of the “Betania Foundation” of Catanzaro, the diocesan charity-assistance work.
A portrait of Monsignor Mimmo Battaglia – Archivio Avvenire
Pope Francis on June 24, 2016 appointed him bishop of Cerreto Sannita-Telese-Sant’Agata de ‘Goti. The following September 3, he received the episcopal consecration in the Cathedral of Catanzaro from the hands of Archbishop Vincenzo Bertolone. Co-consecrating Archbishop Emeritus Cantisani, and Archbishop Giancarlo Maria Bregantini, Metropolitan of Campobasso-Boiano after having been Bishop of Locri-Gerace for 13 years. The inauguration of the dioceses is celebrated on October 2. Before the solemn entrance to the Cathedral of Cerreto Sannita amid crowds of cheers, the significant visit to the Airola Juvenile Criminal Institute.
Now Pope Francis has chosen him for Naples, where he reaches a similar age to that of two of his recent predecessors (Michele Giordano and Corrado Ursi), while to find a Calabrian at the head of the diocese of the old Bourbon capital one must go back to Cardinal Luigi Ruffo. Scilla, not to be confused with the contemporary Sanfedista cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, who was archbishop from 1802 to 1832, but was forced to leave the city, because he was Napoleon’s prisoner in France, between 1806 and 1815.
In his first message to the diocese, Fr. Mimmo Battaglia, as signed, expresses “a deep sense of gratitude” for Pope Francis, extols the positive values of the Neapolitan land and in particular those of “hospitality and welcome” and thanks Cardinal Sepe. for “the familiarity, fatherhood, attention to charity that characterized his ministry.”
“I come with an open heart – writes Battaglia – especially towards those who are wounded in life, towards all seekers of God and towards all those whom God seeks, I come towards the promoters of good, justice and legality. I come as a traveler who wishes to walk by your side, convinced that only together can we follow the only Master and Shepherd, Jesus, Lord of life and history. Our criteria, pastoral plans, concrete choices, daily behaviors must be inspired by him. Jesus invites us to live in a Church that comes out of its sacred precincts to put itself at the service of the territory, starting with the smallest. A Church, therefore, where not only rites are celebrated, but the lives and hopes of the women and men of our time. Along this path we will try to be together artisans of peace, seekers of an infinite that intercepts the limits to make them possibilities, tireless builders of hope.”.
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