The celebrations started on Sunday, February 5th, with the march for peace and ended at Pala Convertini in Cisternino with a solemn concelebration of thanksgiving, presided over by Msgr. Enrico dal Covolo, Rector of the Lateran Pontifical University, who read the decree of Venerability. Over 800 people attended this event, particularly from the towns of Cisternino and Locorotondo, with the respective parish priests and mayors, the General Postulator of the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family, Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, and the Salesian Provincial of Southern Italy, Fr. Pasquale Cristiani, with several representatives of the Salesian Family.

It is also worth mentioning that initiatives were promoted by associations, oratories and groups to make Fr. Convertini and his testimony known. On Saturday, February 11th, on the occasion of the 41st anniversary of the death of the Salesian missionary, the community of Locorotondo celebrated the Venerability of their fellow citizen with a thanksgiving Mass presided over by Fr. Cameroni in the Church of St. Georges the Martyr, where little Francesco was baptized in 1898.

In particular, in the parish churches of Cisternino and Locorotondo, Fr. Cameroni presented the new publication “Il Venerabile Francesco Convertini, missionario della misericordia” (Venerable Francesco Convertini, the missionary of mercy), which illustrates the spiritual and virtuous traits of the new venerable, as a man of the Gospel, with a transparent face and a heart rich in goodness and empathy. The message left by Fr. Convertini is highly topical with reference to the ministry of families, towards whom the great missionary had an apostolic openness; with reference to inter-religious dialogue, with his testimony of being capable to meet Hindus and Muslims; and with reference to reconciliation and peace, of which he was a great worker and an untiring messenger.

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