To welcome the disabled he also sold the ring, Bishop Maffeo, an example of solidarity

Today the presentation of the book on Monsignor Ducoli, who died ten years ago. He dreamed of transforming the former colony of Vallesella into a retirement home

BELLUNO. The first bishop’s ring sold to renovate the San Paolo village in the reception of the disabled. Who was the bishop? Mons. Maffeo Ducoli, who died ten years ago. «As soon as he was appointed bishop of our diocese – says his former secretary Giorgio Lise – mgr. Maffeo Ducoli received a visit from Don Aldo Belli who at the time looked after the village of San Paolo and who told him about his project in favor of less fortunate people. Mons. Ducoli immediately accepted the proposal with enthusiasm and sold one of his very precious episcopal rings. The proceeds he gave to Don Belli to follow up on his intentions ». Today the volume “il vescovo Maffeo” is presented in the seminary in Belluno (5 pm). Bishop who exercised his pastoral ministry in the dioceses of Belluno and Feltre from 1975 to 1986, and then in the new diocese of Belluno-Feltre until 1995. So twenty years of presence and activity that have left a positive sign in the diocese “more beautiful of Italy ”as he used to call it.

The volume is from 2015 and is, so to speak, re-presented on this occasion so as not to let the memory of what Bishop Ducoli has proposed and achieved, both from a spiritual and material point of view, in the diocese entrusted to him fall. From the Papa Luciani Center to the sanctuary on the Nevegal, to name just two works. But it is not known that Ducoli had agreed with the Patriarchate of Venice to transform the former colony of Vallesella into a retirement home. The project was defined, the resources available. There was no staff. From the territory no one willing to be a nurse and Ducoli had to give up. The book is the work of Msgr. Lise who took up service in the bishopric the night Pope Luciani died in Rome, The same monsignor then had to lead the diocesan phase of the Cause of beatification of Pope Luciani, from 2003 to 2006. And in a few days what began 19 years ago , begins with the beatification of John Paul I, scheduled for Sunday 4 September.

The book, rather than talking about the bishop Maffeo Ducoli, makes the bishop himself speak. In fact, he reports in 180 pages and dozens of photos, passages from his personal diary that the author of the book takes up in order to help the reader to reconstruct the multifaceted personality of Msgr. Ducoli and understand in the true meaning the choices he made in his episcopal ministry, prepared and, so to speak, enriched by twenty years of diplomatic service to the Holy See.

“Absolute fidelity to the Pope and love for the Church emerge above all in this volume; his commitment to evangelization through the pastoral visit combined with the popular mission, the organization of the Eucharistic Congress, the construction of the Papa Luciani Center conceived as a place of evangelization and catechesis in the name of this great Pope; attention to missions with the foundation of the Mission in Africa, to migrants with numerous visits to Europe and outside Europe; attention to the poor and less fortunate: we cannot forget the decisive impulse given for open the village of San Paolo del Cavallino (Ve) and the Villa San Marco in Auronzo also to the disabled », Lise points out. In the volume, Ducoli appears above all as a man of faith: “daily prayer, absolute abandonment to the will of God, the ability to allow oneself to be permeated, despite the difficulties of the ministry, by that Christian optimism and hope that arise precisely from faith”. fdm