The Letter of the Bergamo's Bishop, Francesco Beschi, to LITTLE EDEN Society
Bergamo, 9th April 2017
Palm Sunday
Most Reverend Eminence, Excellences,
Dearest Hyams family,
Friends of the Associazione Domitilla Rota Hyams,
Brothers and sisters,
I am united with you today in thought, with my heart and especially with my prayers and am sad at not being able to be present due to prior diocesan pastoral commitments.
I share in your joy in accompanying the replica of our 'Madonna della Cornabusa' from the diocese of Bergamo to Bapsfontain.
Since her childhood, Domitilla venerated this Madonna and I believe that she received from her, Our Lady of Sorrows, the strength to repeat many times in her life “Here I am to do your will”.
On this Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Holy Week, whilst we meditate on the Passion of Jesus Christ which we will experience in the following days and illuminated by the light of the Easter Resurrection, I think also about the many times Domitilla reflected on the words that the crucified Jesus says to Mary: “Woman this is your son”, and to the disciple “This is your mother”. The pierced heart of Christ is the font from where the mission of Domitilla, of her husband Daniele, of her family and of those who followed her, draws nourishment.
The replica of the „Madonna della Cornabusa‟ also has a special connection with our diocese of Bergamo through the figure of Saint Pope John XXIII.
It was indeed Cardinal Roncalli, then Patriarch of Venice, who participated in 1958 at the ceremony for the fiftieth anniversary of the coronation of the „Madonna della Cornabusa‟. That was his last visit to the Sanctuary as barely two months later he was elected Pope. An extremely close bond that had always linked him to this sanctuary, so much so that he even remembered being present at the coronation on 4th October 1908 as Secretary of Bishop Radini Tedeschi.
On that occasion he indicated during his sermon that “the „Madonna della Cornabusa‟ is an expression of a poem of religious piety, love and fidelity. The community of Bergamo remains steadfast in its Christian and Catholic faith as this is anchored on two theological principles: one is the maternity of Mary, consecrated by the testament of the dying Jesus and the other is the mystery of human sorrow resolved in the union with the suffering Christ and with his and our Mother, as a rendering of wellbeing and ultimate joy for everyone. And this explains why the son of the Imagna Valley, wherever we may encounter him, talks about Cornabusa and his Madonna to express his special vivacity of sentiment linked to the tradition of his ancestors and which for him is a great honour and merit to preserve”.
I wish with all my heart that these are the sentiments which inspire your mission, which I entrust to the Most Holy Mary.
Francesco Beschi