From Canavese to Rome for the consistory. Cardinal Miglio: “Thanks to all of you”

Large delegation from the diocese of Ivrea, including the bishop. Cardinal Miglio, a native of San Giorgio Canavese and bishop emeritus of Ivrea, speaking with journalists on the vote: “We must motivate people’s participation”

IVREA. The Canavese now has three cardinals. Among the 20 new cardinals appointed on Saturday 27 August in the Vatican basilica there is indeed Monsignor Arrigo Miglio, of San Giorgio Canavese, 80, former bishop of Ivrea. Cardinal Miglio joins the other two Canavese cardinals, Tarcisio Bertone and Giuseppe Bertello.

At the consistory, over a hundred people from Canavese attended, arriving in Rome by bus and train. Among these, the cousins ​​of Monsignor Miglio: Renata Miglio, who lives in Ivrea, and Luisa Bosco, who lives in San Giorgio. For the Municipality of San Giorgio, the commissioner Marco Baudino was present with the tricolor band.

The new cardinal returned to Rome the day before the ceremony from the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Before receiving the cardinal’s hat, he greeted the cousins ​​and groups who arrived from Canavese and Cagliari, where he was metropolitan archbishop. Both groups met in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday, after having participated in the mass presided over by the bishop of Ivrea Edoardo Aldo Cerrato with some priests. Yesterday, Sunday, in the basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, Cardinal Miglio presided over the solemn mass.

Miglio was assigned the basilica of San Clemente, in Rome. Also present at the ceremony were Cardinal Bertone, the bishop of Cagliari Giuseppe Baturi, CEI secretary. Also present was the bishop of Biella, Roberto Farinella, who has known Miglio personally for many years and Monsignor Pier Giorgio Debernardi, bishop emeritus of Pinerolo, now a missionary in Burkina Faso. At the ceremony, also a delegation of scouts from Sardinia.

Cardinal Miglio, speaking to journalists on Saturday, also spoke on the subject of the vote. «It is necessary« to motivate participation. If I have to tell people who go to church that they have to go and vote, because this is the concrete step. It is no longer enough that neither the parish priest nor the bishop nor the cardinal say so. We must motivate people to understand and therefore to overcome the temptation to withdraw into indifference, to go about their business ”. It is also necessary on the part of the Church “to highlight the reasons why people make a convinced gesture of participation”. As for the theme of the common good in the electoral campaign, «let’s say that we are talking about it, it is already something, as for seeing it, then perhaps we need to see it in the facts, in the choices. Is welcoming migrants part of the common good? It seems to me that there are good reasons to answer yes. And therefore, just to touch on a topic that is not exactly peaceful, then the will to achieve the common good will have to be verified ”.

With the group of San Giorgo, made up entirely of people that Cardinal Miglio has known personally for a long time, the atmosphere was festive. “‘i am avanti, (let’s go ahead) », he replied in Piedmontese to a fellow citizen who complimented him on the papal appointment. During the celebration, Cardinal Miglio reaffirmed his pastoral commitment for the weak and the poor and thanked all those who shared these moments with him, from Pope Francis “who honored me with the call to the college of cardinals” to the bishops of Ivrea Cerrato. and emeritus Bettazzi, from the parish to the Municipality of San Giorgio, passing through the bishops of Iglesias and Cagliari and the scouts.