Great was the expectation of the Church and the city of Noto for the visit of the President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, which took place on 18 and 19 February last. At the end of two intense days, in which he met so many people, bringing a strong message of trust and hope, remains the indelible memory of a historical event that stimulates the local Church and the territory to resume the commitment to a more generous service to this people.

Cardinal Bassetti’s trip to Noto this year has enriched the celebrations of San Corrado Confalonieri, patron of the city and co-patron of the diocese. The President of the CEI, in fact, presided over the Solemn Pontifical in honor of the Saint in the majestic Basilica Cathedral, symbol of Sicilian Baroque, on the morning of 19 February.

His visit to the Noto diocese is also part of the initiative promoted by the Church of Noto, in agreement with the nine municipalities of the diocesan territory: that is, the signing of a “pact” – which Bassetti himself wanted to define as “commitment” – for the common good.

Before presiding over these two official moments, the Cardinal met some of the most significant realities of the diocese and territory: accompanied by the Bishop of Noto, Msgr. Antonio Staglianò, wanted to visit the Episcopal Seminary, where he was welcomed by the formation team and by the 13 young people who are preparing for the priestly ministry.

After having admired the Basilica of the SS. Salvatore, Chapel of the Seminary and the rich Diocesan Library, the Cardinal spoke with the seminarians and gave them a fatherly greeting, expressing the joy of being with them, while he encouraged them to humbly welcome the vocation he defined as a “habit” that the Lord prepares tailor-made for each of them, exhorting them finally to find new energy – when the path becomes slower – reviving the gift of the call.

After the meeting with the Seminar, to welcome the President of the CEI was the Social Cooperative “You can do”, a project of Social Agriculture, born with the support of the diocese of Noto, for the recovery and integration of subjects with psychic disability in civil society, through work integration. The Cardinal, enthusiastic about this initiative of social inclusion and the enhancement of the resources of the territory, underlined the need to encourage ever better “a spirit of enterprise that can enhance the gifts and charisms of all”.

The culmination of the day of February 18, the signing of the “pact for the common good” between the Church of Noto and the nine municipalities of the territory, in the wake of the message of peace of the servant of God Giorgio La Pira. The signing of the “pact” took place at the Palazzo Municipale of Pozzallo, the birthplace of the “Holy Mayor” of Florence.

In his initial greeting, the Bishop of Noto, Msgr. Antonio Staglianò, first of all addressed Cardinal Bassetti, expressing his profound gratitude for his visit and for what it represents: the beauty of a Church that walks in the wake of the magisterium of Pope Francis and on the path of a more decisive missionary impulse. Msgr. Staglianò then recalled the figure of Giorgio La Pira and his commitment as a politician at the service of the good of all. In this – he underlined – consists the full realization of the human person: “In the ability to give life for others; in serving our cities, more than with money, with our humanity, with our potential, to create civilization, to remain human, to generate processes of integration and social and economic development “.
The President of the CEI then turned to those present expressing his emotion in being in the native places of La Pira and his satisfaction with this “commitment-pact” in the wake of the Lapirian heritage, to “solve the most urgent needs of the humble” , to use the words of the “Holy Mayor”.

Bassetti then highlighted the need to take concrete political choices at the service of the common good, “a good for all and not for the few. A good that does not seek power, but wants service. A good that does not want to divide, but which is ardently striving to share, “he concluded. After the signing of the “pact” by Bishop Staglianò and the Mayors of the nine Municipalities, the Cardinal with deep emotion declared that this signed commitment represents “the most beautiful monument that could be realized for Giorgio La Pira”.

The second official moment of the visit of the President of the Italian Episcopate was the Pontifical Solemn of San Corrado Confalonieri, patron of the city and co-patron of the diocese of Noto. In the Basilica Cathedral, where the artistic silver Ark is kept, containing the mortal remains of the Holy Hermit, Cardinal Bassetti gave his homily, in which he brought out the human story of the Saint as an exemplary model of Holiness: “St. Corrado Confalonieri met God in the ordinariness of his existence, even in an accident – that fire well known to the hagiographic sources, turned on for fun and that, in the end, destroyed woods and put many people’s lives at risk – but allowed to an ambitious young man to return to himself and, precisely, to meet God “.

He then observed how the experience of San Corrado “invites us to live against the current, right now, in a time so delicate that it requires firm and consistent decisions on the part of us”. Bassetti concluded by inviting the faithful and devotees of the Saint to commit themselves so that devotion to the Patron Saint “is not only a feeling, often destined to vanish, but a stimulus to understand that joy and the realization of life is not so much in the things we possess , but in the love with which we serve God and our brothers ”.

At the end of the celebration and at the end of this brief but intense visit – in which the Cardinal also expressed his condolences for the victims of a terrible car accident, which took place in Noto in the early hours of the feast day and in which they lost their lives two young people – the meeting with the Authorities at Palazzo Ducezio, seat of the Municipality of Noto.

To welcome the Mayor of the city, Corrado Bonfanti, together with the Municipal Administration. Here the President of the Italian Bishops has signed the book of the guests welcomed in the city over the years, with the following dedication: “It is the second time that the Providence brings me to Noto. The first time as a visitor and formator of seminarians (the future apostles of your diocese); the second visit to celebrate San Corrado, the living symbol of a man that the Gospel incarnated in his life “.