austraLasia #1786

Cimatti letters heading for final CD publication

VERONA: 18th December 2006 -- Fr Gaetano Compri, the vice postulator for the cause for beatification and canonisation of Ven. Vincent Cimatti, first Salesian missionary to Japan and 'father' of that province, has returned briefly to Verona and environs to finalise work on a CD containing all known letters of Cimatti, of which there are now 6,150 after the recent discovery of an additional 700.  Last December the fourth volume of letters translated from Italian to Japanese was published by DB Sha, Tokyo.  The intention is to publish the full CD of 6,000 plus letters before the occasion of the Cimatti concert to be held in Ravenna on July 15th next year.
    Ravenna and Verona are the two centres where much necessary background work is being done by Salesians and one lay member of the Salesian Family, Laetizia Faggioli.  The latter in fact spent over a month in Japan at the Cimatti museum in Chofu, verifying the actual state of extant letters - it was then that the additional 700 were discovered.  In Verona-San Zeno, Fr Raimondo Loss and Br Michele Giacosa, are checking the typed transcripts of the Cimatti letters, prepared by Fr Crevacore in the 1970's, and from there they are converting them to digital format.  This is a labour of love but brings them much richness. As Fr Loss puts it: "Reading the spiritual richness of Fr Cimatti we receive a daily dose of the strong spiritual freshness of Salesian energy".
    The proposed Ravenna concert will be held in the San Apolinario church with its 5th century mosaic, and will feature, for the first time in Italy, a Cimatti-composed sung Mass.
    It should be added that Fr Compri has another string to his bow - for many years he has pursued studies and information on the Turin Shroud, and in Japan, at least, is the best known 'expert' on that phenomenon.  Japan's NHK has recently produced a 60 minute documentary on it, and Japan's largest publishing house Ko-dan-sha has produced a large colour picture book.
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