A conference dedicated to St. Pius X. The event will take place this afternoon at Palazzo Soardi (from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m.) and is entitled: The Work of the Catholic Church for Emigration in the time of St. Pius X, former Bishop of Mantua. The proposal comes from the Association “Mantovani nel mondo” and has been accepted by the Diocese of Mantua, the Municipality of Riese and other institutions because of the topicality of the issue and the cue to consider the close relationship between the Pope and Scalabrini bishop of Piacenza, Bonomelli bishop of Cremona, St. Francesca Saverio Cabrini all three apostles of migrants: two towards the Americas and Bonomelli towards Central Europe. It is also a sign of Mantua’s participation in the various initiatives commemorating the anniversary of Sarto’s election as Pope (1903-2023), which opened in Treviso and Riese on August 21 and will end on August 21, 2023. Today’s conference will feature numerous speakers. In fact, speakers will include Paolo Masini (president of the new National Museum of Emigration in Genoa-established last May 2022), who will talk about Missionaries in the World. A heritage to be told; then Costantino Cipolla (professor at the University of Bologna), with a talk entitled Il Vescovo Sarto e il cattolicesimo sociale lombardo; followed by Don Giovanni Telò (professor of Church History at the Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose di Mantova) who will deal with I mantovani emigravano, il vescovo Sarto alzò la sua voce; then Lucetta Scaraffia (professor of Contemporary History Università la Sapienza di Roma) with a talk entitled Santa Madre Cabrini: A True Understanding of the Migration Phenomenon; and Fr. Mario Toffari (Scalabrinian father and vice-postulator for the cause of canonization of Blessed Scalabrini bishop of Piacenza) who will speak around St. Pius X, Blessed Scalabrini and Bishop Bonomelli: the spirituality of ‘action. Already last summer, moreover, the idea of a route between the Mantuan countryside and the city was born. It is a project that was born by the Association Mantovani nel Mondo, together with the Diocese of Mantua and the Ecomuseum of the Rice Fields, which sees the Mantuan agricultural courts (on the border with Veneto) brought together in a single itinerary to Mantua. A sign to remember the ’emigration that already in 1887 the then Bishop Sarto will consider, urging the clergy to a spiritual relief for the emigrating population, a theme then remained very much alive even during his pontificate.
