The Confraternity of the hazelnut from Pope Francis to promote the “Give a smile” initiative in favor of the Verduno hospital.
Pope Francis greeted with thumbs up the presentation of the charity event organized by the Italian Sports Center of Alba to be held at the San Cassiano stadium on Saturday 14 May and with the participation of the Vatican national football team. A sports festival which will also be attended by the national parliamentary team and a selection of the Csi from Alba in the presence of the President of the Region Alberto Cirio. Talking about it with the Holy Father during the weekly audience on Wednesday in the Nervi room was a delegation of the Confraternity of the round gentle hazelnut of Langa, which collaborates in the event.
Carmelo Franceschini, CSI manager and representative of the Confraternity explains: «Pope Francis answered us with a” good “and a pleased smile. He greatly appreciated the purpose of the event which plans to donate the proceeds of the event to the Maternal and Child Department of the Verduno hospital. In the next few days the program of the event sponsored by the Region, the Municipalities of Alba and Bra and the Diocese of Alba will be released ».
The delegation of the Confraternity of the hazelnut, led by the Grand Master Ginetto Pellerino, donated to the pontiff a selection of organic hazelnut products and the volume “Nonna Rosa, the rock of the Langhe, from Cortemilia to Argentina”, written by Orsola Appendino and Giancarlo Libert, which tells the life of Rosa Margherita Vassallo, the Pope’s paternal grandmother born in the hamlet of Cagna di Piana Crixia, not far from the Marian sanctuary of Todocco. Nonna Rosa was among the most important people in her life. She is the woman who raised him, teaching him the faith and also the Piedmontese dialect spoken in her house with her husband Giovanni even after moving to Argentina. Rosa’s mother and the Pope’s great-grandmother, Angela Maria Crema, was originally from Cortemilia, where she was born in 1843.