The last conversation between John Paul and the secrets of the Curia – breaking latest news

“The pen is heavy, my son.” That 24th May, don Comincio Lanzara he barely murmured it, in his study overlooking Largo Abate Conforti, in the heart of the old Salerno. The pen is heavy: he was right, Monsignor “Ricomincio”. It is a boulder in the fingers, to the remembrance of that conversation on a mild Sunday evening, at the end of spring 2020. Don Comincio opened the door of a house that looked like a small themed museum (“Half a century of bishops” , they might call him) and gave me an interview. His last interview, but I didn’t know. I didn’t think it would end like this. It didn’t have to end like this.
«Call me back, we will organize ourselves!». I snatched a precious promise from him that Sunday evening, on the sidelines of one of the most – unexpectedly – pleasant chats that this profession has given me: the yes to another journalistic conversation after the dialogue of May 24 that had been a prerequisite for publication of an article, two days later, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the pastoral visit of Pope John Paul II to Salerno. He promised me another meeting for a full-fledged chat. The title of the piece I had already prefigured: “I who have served five bishops”. The secrets of our “Richelieu”, as they called it. “Call me back – said Don Comincio – and we’ll do it.”
I did not. I didn’t call him back. I thought that Time gave us more time. I didn’t even think about death: in front of me I had a piece of history of the Salerno Curia, and how is it possible that history takes its last breath? And Don Comincio had so much to say: in his eighty-plus years he had spoken little. He was the man who “whispered” to the bishops, always one step behind them: “He must grow, I must decrease”. Behind the scenes, far from the proscenium: the taciturn Don Comincio never liked the blinding lights of the spotlights. Nor the interviews. The pen is heavy, isn’t it? Don Comincio welcomed me into his house through the “intercession” of Don Sabatino Naddeo, who had been chancellor at the time of Gerardo Pierro. “He is a young man raised in the parish by me,” was the pass. That was enough: the word of a brother who had earned the trust of the former master of ceremonies.
A chat lasting two hours, and Don Comincio did not loosen the mask even for a thousandth of a second, because he was physically weak: the day before he had left the hospital after a very long hospitalization. The educated man’s brain, however, was very lucid. «That day I was next to John Paul II, now I turn to him in prayer», he said to me with a hoarse voice, showing me the large books with the photographs of that May 26, 1985: «They are relics, I keep them like this». That day I discovered another Don Comincio. The shy and meddled “Richelieu”, who when I was a child aroused me fear for that expression that was always grim and frowning, had given way to an 80-year-old prelate with the enthusiasm of a young man. Humanity and humility. And when the article came out, the monsignor phoned me. He was happy as a child: “Call me back, let’s get organized,” he repeated to me.
I did not. I didn’t call him back. Time has won. And the reserved Don Comincio took away his secrets. I advised him to put them in a book: “At my age? The pen is heavy, my son, but I would have to write … ». He left me only a few, of secrets. Whisper, as usual. Those of another papal visit, in 1999, to Pontecagnano Faiano. “There were unspeakable obstacles. In the Vatican they opposed, some cardinal did not want the pope to come to bless the seminary ». That heavy title, “John Paul II”, “provoked heavy hostilities on the part of Roman circles against Pierro, but he overcame them”. Always with his archbishop, in good times or bad. The judicial troubles? «Everything ended in nothing: a non-existent and non-existent process, which had no foundation. It was only necessary to demolish two figures: Gerardo Pierro and Comincio Lanzara », he got excited.
I wasn’t thinking about the last breath, but we talked about it. “I witnessed the deaths of three archbishops, and I gave them absolution,” he told me. He remembered the final hours of Demetrio Moscato: «I was with him in the hospital, in via Vernieri, for two days and for two nights. And twice he said to those present: “Go out, I have to talk to Don Comincio”. And twice he warned me: “Take care of the Colonia San Giuseppe”. It would have been my cross and my delight. Then he died ». I absolve you. He remembered the farewell to Gaetano Pollio: «While he was dying I was with him, next to a saint». I absolve you. Relived the farewell to Guerino Grimaldi: «I gave him absolution while he was on the ground, in the corridor of the house, when he had that heart attack that broke his heart». I absolve you. Who knows who witnessed the death of the master of ceremonies who served five bishops, in the sultry night of July that took the breath away from the taciturn “Richelieu”, who whispered in the ear of the cardinals, and also to that other man there, to the man cultured, enthusiastic and humble who opened the door to my house. And that I didn’t call back. I certainly won’t do it now: the pen is heavy. And then on the other side, with three bishops waiting for him, “Don Ricomincio” will have a lot to do. I’m sure.
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