The solemn Holy Mass in memory of brother Giovanni Battistelli, Custos of the Holy Land from 1998 to 2004, who died on 20th October in the Franciscan Convent of Montefalco, in Italy, at the age of 77, was celebrated on Sunday 6th November in the parish church of St. Saviour in the presence of members of his family. Presided by the present Custos, Brother Pierbattista Pizzaballa, with alongside, as concelebrants Brother Artemio Vitores, Custodial Vicar, and Brother Simon Hirro, the ceremony was attended by many members of the Franciscan community of the Holy Land and numerous local Arabic-speaking Christians who were greatly touched. They filled the church and most of them remembered Brother Battistelli and his works in the many years he spent in the Middle East and in the Holy Land very well. Father Jirayr Tashyian and Father Koryoun Baghdasaryan, priests of the Armenian Church of Jerusalem, also attended the ceremony.
There was an atmosphere of profound prayer and sincere participation at the Holy Mass, in Latin and in Arabic, accompanied by moving songs. In his homily, Brother Simon Hirro outlined the figure of Brother Battistelli, highlighting his great human, cultural and pastoral qualities which were at the base of his precious contribution to the Franciscan activity and Christian life in the Holy Land. In particular, some important initiatives of a social nature undertaken by Brother Battistelli were remembered, such as how he started Sunday schools, introduced camping near Akko for children in conditions of economic and social hardship, supported cultural activities, from theatre to music, gave attention to vocational growth, and how close he was and the concrete help he gave to the neediest, especially when, in the 1980s, he was the Director of the Franciscan Casa Nova in Jerusalem. “He revealed,” Brother Hirro continued, “ the real face of the friar, working concretely to bring people closer to the Church and the Franciscans and opening the convents to direct and immediate contact with people and their concerns.”
When, in May 1998, a few weeks after he was nominated Custos of the Holy Land, he was asked in an interview how he thought he would face the problems that he was bound to meet in his mission in this difficult context, Brother Battistelli answered that he would rely on the help of the Virgin Mary and the collaboration of his brothers. He continues to be an outstanding figure in the life of the Custody in recent years, a man who lived through, enlightened by faith and guided by his great spirit of charity, some of the most significant events in the recent history of the Holy Land, from 1978, when the Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat signed the first peace agreement by an Arab country with the State of Israel, to the controversy over the project of building a mosque near the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, from the pilgrimage in the Holy Land by Pope John Paul II in 2000, to the outbreak of the second intifada, with the tensions and violence that marked it. A luminous model of Christian life and a perseverant example of Franciscan vocation which, through many prestigious community and directive, pastoral, cultural and teaching positions, served the Church and the Custody of the Holy Land for over 50 years.
At the end of the ceremony of commemoration, the authorities, the friends and all those present were able to offer their condolences to the Custos and the family of the late Brother Battistelli in the parish hall of St. Saviour.
By Caterina Foppa Pedretti
Photos by Marco Gavasso
There was an atmosphere of profound prayer and sincere participation at the Holy Mass, in Latin and in Arabic, accompanied by moving songs. In his homily, Brother Simon Hirro outlined the figure of Brother Battistelli, highlighting his great human, cultural and pastoral qualities which were at the base of his precious contribution to the Franciscan activity and Christian life in the Holy Land. In particular, some important initiatives of a social nature undertaken by Brother Battistelli were remembered, such as how he started Sunday schools, introduced camping near Akko for children in conditions of economic and social hardship, supported cultural activities, from theatre to music, gave attention to vocational growth, and how close he was and the concrete help he gave to the neediest, especially when, in the 1980s, he was the Director of the Franciscan Casa Nova in Jerusalem. “He revealed,” Brother Hirro continued, “ the real face of the friar, working concretely to bring people closer to the Church and the Franciscans and opening the convents to direct and immediate contact with people and their concerns.”
When, in May 1998, a few weeks after he was nominated Custos of the Holy Land, he was asked in an interview how he thought he would face the problems that he was bound to meet in his mission in this difficult context, Brother Battistelli answered that he would rely on the help of the Virgin Mary and the collaboration of his brothers. He continues to be an outstanding figure in the life of the Custody in recent years, a man who lived through, enlightened by faith and guided by his great spirit of charity, some of the most significant events in the recent history of the Holy Land, from 1978, when the Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat signed the first peace agreement by an Arab country with the State of Israel, to the controversy over the project of building a mosque near the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, from the pilgrimage in the Holy Land by Pope John Paul II in 2000, to the outbreak of the second intifada, with the tensions and violence that marked it. A luminous model of Christian life and a perseverant example of Franciscan vocation which, through many prestigious community and directive, pastoral, cultural and teaching positions, served the Church and the Custody of the Holy Land for over 50 years.
At the end of the ceremony of commemoration, the authorities, the friends and all those present were able to offer their condolences to the Custos and the family of the late Brother Battistelli in the parish hall of St. Saviour.
By Caterina Foppa Pedretti
Photos by Marco Gavasso