austraLasia 994
Cimatti: Past Pupils in Faenza take up the running to
promote the Cause
FAENZA (Northern Italy): 11th January 2005 --
The Venerable Mons. Vincent Cimatti, native of Faenza, left that wonderful
centre of Italian culture to become a Salesian in the late 1890's. His
Salesian journey took him to Turin, initially, but then to Japan with eight
other Salesians to found the Salesian mission there. Other than an
occasional visit, he never really returned to Faenza, but the Past Pupils of Don
Bosco from that city have not forgotten their famous and saintly
compatriot, as witnessed by events over these days, organised completely by
them, since there is no longer a Salesian Institute in Faenza.
Fr Gaetano Compri, likewise a citizen
of Faenza is also a missionary in Japan and now the Japanese-based Promoter
of the Cause for Cimatti's canonisation. He has returned at the
invitation of the Past Pupils and with the support of the local Bishop.
The aim is to promote knowledge and love of Faenza's famous missionary
son.
Fr Compri, between 9-12 January, is
speaking at a number of public venues in Faenza and nearby Ravenna. His
topic is the grand personage that Vincent Cimatti was in human and cultural
terms as well as in terms of Salesian holiness.
Cimatti, born 15th July 1879, died in Japan
on 6th October 1965. Pope John Paul II declared him Venerable on 21st
December 1991. It is the hope of the Salesian Family worldwide, but
especially in Faenza Italy, and in Miyazaki Japan, that Cimatti will soon be
beatified. It was in Miyazaki that the Holy See asked Cimatti to be the
Vicar Apostolic with title of Monsignor; it was there too that he established
the first Salesian presence and was instrumental in asking Fr Cavoli to found
the Charity Sisters of Miyazaki.
Fr Compri has so much that he can say about
Cimatti, since he is the curator of the museum dedicated to him in Chofu
(Tokyo),a museum full of collections of all kinds, botanical, geological and
cultural, of Cimatti's. Cimatti completed two degrees from Italian
Universities, particularly in music. He wrote more than a thousand pieces
and composed an Opera, the first truly Japanese opera (with an obvious Italian
influence) titled Hosakawa Grazia, performed recently in Tokyo's Grand Opera
Hall. As a Salesian Cimatti 'translated' Don Bosco's preventive system
into the immediate post-Don Bosco period in Italy and then in Japan, teaching it
not so much by writing books or even literally translating it into Japanese, but
by living it in such an extraordinary way that all who knew him were convinced
of his holiness and of the fruits of the 'system'.
_____________________
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