The new sacred building – featuring an original copper exterior facade and a modern and bright interior - was long-awaited for by the local community - 27 years - and rises in what is the town's most populous neighborhood. For this reason, neither the Mayor, Tommaso Corvatta, nor the President of the Province of Macerata, Antonio Pettinari, wished to miss being at the ceremony alongside various local authorities; from the Salesian community, don Leonardo Mancini, Superior of the Central Italy District (ICC).
In the homily of Mass, the bishop underlined the close relationship between the church as a building, a community of faithful and apostolate of charity: "This church is a living organism. This church has a spirit, of brick, and it gathers the living stones that we faithful are. (...). The words of men divide us; that's why we need to hear the word of God and give it its due primacy. Civitanova is like a Galilee of peoples; this city is a 'melting pot or mosaic'; full of foreigners, of others. I have seen this city's progress in its attention to the poor. I have seen charity increase, but it is not enough. The only extremism permissible is the fundamentalism of charity."
At the end of the Mass, Fr. Mancini and Fr. Giovanni Molinari, SDB, the parish priest, also spoke.
The sacred building, which will soon see further work completed, rises on an area donated by a local family in memory of their son Maurilio Murri, an oratorian who passed away in 1970 at the age of 19. The building's sitting capacity is 410, plus 60 choir seats set on steps.
In the church there are also valuable artistic elements, such as the baptismal font of stone emerging from a rectangular vessel; stained glass windows inspired by theological moments; the entrance door and a bronze crucifix.
Source: Cronache Maceratesi
https://www.infoans.org/en/sections/news/item/3389-italy-consecration-of-a-new-church-dedicated-to-mary-help-of-christians#sigProId0afe8a9f7a
