PRESS RELEASE
Solemn memory for Toniolo blessed on 4 September. From Milan a group visits his tomb in the Duomo, while Cardinal Stella blesses a statue at the home of the miraculous Francesco Bortolini
The announcement came during last Sunday's festive masses in Pieve di Soligo: in the year of the tenth anniversary of the beatification that took place in Rome on April 29, 2012, the liturgical memorial of Blessed Giuseppe Toniolo, buried in the Cathedral of Pievigino, will be celebrated in the solemn mass from Sunday September 4 at 10 in the same mother church of Pieve, chaired by Don Luca Soldan , given the simultaneous absence of Monsignor Giuseppe Nadal, engaged in Rome in those days on the diocesan pilgrimage for the new blessed Pope Albino Luciani. By a singular coincidence, in fact, the liturgical remembrance of Toniolo and the ceremony of elevation to the honors of the altars of Pope John Paul I are established on the same day, just 4 September, to make the feast even greater for these children of the Venetian land taken up in the firmament of the blessed officially recognized as such by the Church. For the diocese of Vittorio Veneto, then, the current year certainly represents a time of special grace, given that the beatification ceremony of the martyr Franciscan friar took place in San Salvador on January 22nd. Father Cosma Spessotto, originally from Mansuè, confirming that the land between Piave and Livenza tells many precious stories and examples of human and Christian life in fullness, traced with faces and places in the map of the streets of the Saints created by the diocesan Institute Beato Toniolo. And it was precisely along this path of faith and popular devotion that the journey from Milan unfolded a large group of the Ambrosian Catholic Action has performed in Alta Marca in recent days, in particular to the ancient Pieve di San Pietro di Feletto - here accompanied on the visit by the good expert of sacred art Clare DeLorenzi, member of the scientific commission of "Beato Toniolo" - and then in Cathedral in Pieve di Soligo, paying homage to the great Catholic sociologist and economist also through a Eucharistic concelebration, in addition to the presentations and dialogues interwoven with the invited and present representatives of the board and scientific commission of the diocesan Institute, together with Fr Luca Soldan, parish coadjutor. Great interest and many compliments from the AC Milan delegation, led by the national councilor Silvia Landra and by the assistant general Don Cristiano Passoni, for the project and the concrete achievements implemented in recent years by the Beato Toniolo Institute, which is based in Pieve di Soligo. Do not miss the souvenir photos in the places visited by the participants, even in front of the bell tower of the Pievigino Cathedral which shows on its top the large vertical poster with the image of Blessed Toniolo and the dedication for the tenth anniversary of the beatification, with the date of 2 June 2022 which mentions the day of the inauguration of the restoration works of the church and of Piazza Balbi Valier. As the archpriest himself communicated in writing on the parish sheet Monsignor Nadal, the banner will remain hoisted and clearly visible throughout 2022, to testify to the joy and gratitude of the Christian community for Toniolo blessed, ten years after his beatification. And precisely among the events of this special anniversary, the beautiful ceremony that was held on Sunday 21 August in the garden of the house of Francesco Bortolini, the entrepreneur pievigino miraculously healed thanks to the intercession of the blessed Toniolo in June 2006 after the terrible injury that had happened to him falling ruinously from a height. Cardinal Beniamino Stella he blessed a statue that reproduces Giuseppe Toniolo almost in real size, the work of a well-known local artist, which Bortolini wanted to place at his residence as a sign of memory and gratitude for the healing obtained. The cardinal from Pievigino - present Monsignor Nadal, Don Soldan and a small group of family and friends - also sealed with holy water a second statue representing the blessing Christ, placed at a short distance and made by another important Treviso artist, always desired from the miraculous Francis as an expression of gratitude and benevolence for his life of rebirth.
