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Before concluding the general audience, the Pope dedicated moving words about Father Roberto Malgesini, the priest murdered on Tuesday morning 15 in the Lombard city of Como. Let us pray, he said, “for all the priests, religious, laity, laity who they work with people in need and discarded by society. “
Campanile of Emanuela – Vatican City
Francisco’s tone changes shortly before saying goodbye to the small crowd gathered in the Patio de San Dâmaso, in the Vatican. The conclusion of the general audience becomes a time of painful prayer. The Pope has in his heart the figure of Father Roberto Malgesini, the “street priest”, the one who served the “discarded” in Como, murdered Tuesday morning by one of them, with mental problems.
I join in the pain and prayer of your relatives and the Como community and, as your bishop has said, I praise God for his witness, that is, for his martyrdom, for this witness of charity towards the poorest. Let us pray in silence for Father Roberto Malgesini and for all the priests, religious, laity, and laity who work with the needy and discarded by society.
Collaborator of the Beato Scalabrini pastoral community, he served in Como San Rocco and it was there that the bishop, Don Oscar Cantoni, went as soon as he heard the news of the murder of Father Roberto Malgesini.
“This priest of ours”, said the bishop, who expressed “deep pain and disorientation for what happened”, but also “pride”, because Father Roberto has always worked on the front line, “to the point of giving his life to the least favored ”.
The discovery
The body of Father Roberto was found Tuesday morning at 7 in the morning, near the canon of San Rocco, in the center of Como, where he was staying. Numerous stab wounds, the fatal one to the neck. According to an initial reconstruction by investigators, Father Roberto began his usual round of small meal delivery when he probably found the murderer waiting for him: a homeless man known to the priest, with whom he apparently had a good relationship and whom he attended. Due to the lack of witnesses, the circumstances in which the murder took place are still unknown.
A father for the poor
Astonishment among so many people, many of them foreigners, that Father Roberto met and observed on a daily basis. Dozens of them came to the crime scene to be, in one way or another, close to what they considered a father.
“For the poor, he was really a father,” says Dom Cantoni in the interview. For him, as bishop, Father Roberto was, instead, like a son: “Yes, he was like a son and we saw each other frequently. He told me about his activity – continues – revealing the most beautiful realities, because he exercised his ministry with joy. A vocation within a vocation ”.
Photo gallery
Vigil in the Cathedral of Como in honor of Father Roberto
