Bishop Pietro Fiordelli of Prato
With the passing away on December 22 of Mgr Pietro Fiordelli, who for 37 years was bishop of Prato, Italy, the Church in Malta lost a great friend. For the last ten years, though ill with cancer, he continued to pray and to ask about Malta, which he...
With the passing away on December 22 of Mgr Pietro Fiordelli, who for 37 years was bishop of Prato, Italy, the Church in Malta lost a great friend. For the last ten years, though ill with cancer, he continued to pray and to ask about Malta, which he first visited in 1959 at the invitation of the Cana Movement.
Mgr Fiordelli was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, on January 9, 1916. At the young age of 38 he was appointed the first resident Bishop of Prato, which was then a very "Red" city.
He took a leading part in the Second Vatican Council and it was through him that the term "the family is the domestic church" found its way in the Council documents.
Many remember Mgr Fiordelli for his staunch defence of the Christian family through his action against divorce and his defence of the unborn. In 1958 he was condemned by the court for having declared a couple married outside the Church as living in "a state of concubinage". His condemnation became headline news in the world press, but he was acquitted by the appeal court.
This experience made him an apostle of the family, when he was elected president of the Italian Bishops' Family Commission. For 40 years we worked together for the family, which, as he wrote on October 1, 2004 on the occasion of the golden jubilee of my priesthood: "In my pastoral work I have always placed the family first and given it a priviliged place. In this commitment we have always felt and found ourselves so close."
He loved the Church in Malta and Gozo. At one stage about nine Maltese and Gozitan priests worked in Prato. He helped us found in Malta the lay religious organisation Spigolatrici della Chiesa; he conducted spiritual retreats for the Maltese clergy and, inspired by the Cana Movement in Malta, he took the initiative of introducing pre-marriage courses and marriage counselling in Italy.
Bishop Fiordelli's charisma for the family was backed by his deep spirituality, humility, simplicity of life and above all his devotion to Our Lady. His imprint remains in the Church of Italy and Prato for he gave many years of dedicated pastoral work.
He concluded his letter to me with this request: "Pray for me, as I have great need and recommend me to the Virgin Mary, whom I have always loved".