Bishop emeritus of Fiesole, Msgr. Luciano Giovannetti, returned to the house of the Father.
Bishop emeritus of Fiesole, Msgr. Luciano Giovannetti, who would have been 90 years old in a few days, returned to the Father's house today.
The John Paul II Foundation, which he founded over twenty-five years ago to help Christians in the Middle East, prays for him as he is reunited with the Father today, in Christ, in the Holy Spirit.
In these hours of bewilderment over his departure from this world, some of Bishop Luciano's words come to mind: "We must be close to the Christians who live in the land where Jesus was born, where the first church was born, where each man was born not only affectively, but also effectively." These are words Bishop Luciano Giovannetti has repeated many times over the years in which he has spent himself, sparing no energy, for Christians living in the Middle East, from Iraq to Jordan, from Lebanon to Israel and Palestine.
Luciano Giovannetti was born in Civitella in Val di Chiana, a small town near Arezzo on July 26, 1934; ordained a priest in Arezzo Cathedral on June 15, 1957; appointed bishop, titular of Zaba and auxiliary to the bishop of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro on Feb. 15, 1978, and on April 8 received episcopal ordination. On May 27, 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop of Fiesole, where he made his entrance on Sept. 6. Since April 18, 2010, he has been bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Fiesole.
The president of the John Paul II Foundation, Andrea Bottinelli, invites all who knew him to remember him in prayer for his long service to the Church and his love for all those in need, in Italy and in the countries of the Middle East.