TRIESTE. The city of Trieste also gave its final farewell to Omar Monestier. The director of Messaggero Veneto and Il Piccolo, who died suddenly on August 1 at the age of 57, was remembered on Friday 9 September with a mass in suffrage, officiated by Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi in the Cathedral of San Giusto.
A religious celebration that was an opportunity for colleagues and institutions to have that moment, hitherto missed, to pay homage to the man and the professional, whose funeral was held on August 4 in Belluno, where Monestier was born and from which started a career that led him to lead numerous newspapers in the Triveneto area and beyond.
Hi Omar
Paolo Mosanghini
Many messages of condolence reached the editorial offices of Il Messaggero Veneto and Piccolo after the director’s death. Words arrived from the very first moment, while the group of women and men led by Monestier was still in disbelief, and which then followed one another for weeks, demonstrating the affection and esteem that Omar had been able to arouse, despite his arrival in Trieste it dated back only a year and a half earlier, when he had received the difficult task of jointly directing the two main newspapers of Friuli Venezia Giulia, proceeding with the integration of the work of the newspapers and studying the most effective forms for their leap into the era of digital.
Just over a year and a half in Trieste. However, it is sufficient to make readers, institutions, the political world and categories grasp Monestier’s attachment to the Piccolo and his desire to relaunch its role, curiosity for the history of the eastern border and the conviction that the city, after decades of decline, had come to a time of possible take-off. Monestier wanted to be a voice of it through the newspaper, recounting its successes and siding with its inhabitants in times of difficulty, with that “we will fight” engraved in the latest fund dedicated to the Wärtsilä crisis.
Monsignor Crepaldi recalled this in his homily, in which the bishop underlined how Trieste «had sensed that he had a disinterested interlocutor and an intelligent interpreter in him. Omar has entrusted us with a legacy that must be preserved and cultivated: the responsibility of taking charge of Trieste. He believed in this city, he hoped in his development projects, he loved it. And with reference to the Wärtsilä crisis, he had far-sighted words. He wrote: “Trieste exists. The mobilization of the city has begun and we must ensure that it becomes collective ”.
Which happened with the demonstration last Saturday ». Crepaldi then recalled that «on the occasion of the conferral of the fourteenth-century seal to Il Piccolo for his 140th birthday, he said:“ There was a moment when I realized that I want to die as a journalist. When thousands of people marched under our windows screaming at us and using the word “freedom” inappropriately. I say we will continue to do our job seriously. And we will always be free ”».
After the celebration, Crepaldi brought his condolences to Monestier’s family, represented by his wife Sara and daughter Benedetta. In the church were present the journalists of the Piccolo, the leaders of the Gedi group, the television colleagues, the prefect Annunziato Vardè, the mayor of Trieste Roberto Dipiazza and that of Muggia Paolo Polidori, the regional councilor Alessia Rosolen and other authorities.
“I renew my closeness to the family – said Vardè – for this very sad event: we remember a person of the highest culture who has done so much for the territory”. Dipiazza recalled the figure of “a gentleman journalist, an extraordinary man who contributed to the growth of our city”. Rosolen recalled «the passion and innovation brought by Monestier: all this can be seen in the response given by his collaborators and representatives of the city».
For Senator Pd Tatjana Rojc, «Monestier was a cultured and polite man: we will remember his attention to great contemporary issues, his fulminating irony. He was animated by a tireless vitality, a constant interest in people and facts ». Alessandro Ciani, councilor of the Municipality of Udine was also present at the mass: “It was a duty to be there, on behalf of the mayor and of the whole city, to remember the unforgettable director of our newspaper, an intelligent man, deep and in love with Udine, Friuli and of all the North East ».
Upon leaving the service, Riccardo Illy focused on “Monestier’s attachment to the city and to the profession: I appreciated him for this, because he was a great professional and because he loved Trieste”.
The president of the Order of Journalists Cristiano Degano highlighted that “Omar managed to take over the direction of two newspapers in the region with great balance: he made a notable contribution to overcoming some conflicts and some bell towers that have no reason to exist”.
“I have always been struck by his openness and his frankness”, finally said the director of the Rossetti Theater Paolo Valerio, recalling “his way of making you feel important, his sensitivity, his enthusiasm for life and his great ability. of communication”.