VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The church needs courageous men and women like Italian Bishop Antonio Bello of Molfetta, who imitated Jesus’ closeness to the poor and the downtrodden, Pope Francis said.
Visiting the birthplace of the beloved bishop affectionately known as “Don Tonino,” the pope said Bishop Bello’s life and ministry “remind us to not theorize closeness to the poor but to be close to them as Jesus did.
“Don Tonino did not do this because it was convenient or because he was seeking approval, but because he was moved by the Lord’s example. Out of love for him, we find the strength to rid ourselves of the garments that get in the way so that we can dress ourselves in service, to be ‘the church of the apron, which is the only priestly vestment recorded in the Gospel,’” he said April 20.
Pope Francis arrived in the morning by helicopter in the town of Alessano, located in the southern Italian province of Lecce, where Bishop Bello was born and buried.
Born in 1935, Don Tonino spent his first years of priestly ministry as vice rector of a seminary while collaborating with the Catholic charitable organization Caritas. After he was named bishop of Molfetta in 1982 by St. John Paul II, Bishop Bello not only served the poor of his diocese but also worked to promote peace, often rallying against wars in the Persian Gulf and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
He served as president of Pax Christi Italy, an international peace movement, until his death of stomach cancer in 1993. The Vatican approved the opening of Bishop Bello’s sainthood cause in 2007.
After visiting Bishop Bello’s tomb, Pope Francis rode in a small white golf cart and greeted thousands of men, women and children gathered nearby.
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