An inconvenient priest

Don Giovanni Minzoni from Romagna, whose death this year marks the centenary of his death, was able to combine the choice of the priesthood with social commitment. A chaplain in the First World War with a silver medal for military valor earned on the Piave, already in the years preceding the conflict he took an interest in the situation of workers, laborers and laborers in the Ferrara area, creating social cooperatives, and of young people, joining the scout movement.

This commitment of his was part of the tension created by the political climate, with the divisions created by the nascent fascist party. In 1921 the assassination by the squadristi of the socialist trade unionist Natale Gaiba, municipal councilor of Argenta and friend of Don Minzoni, and other similar crimes confirmed the priest in the fight against the regime. This opposition cost him his life. On the evening of August 23, while he was in the company of a young parishioner, he was attacked from behind by two squad members with stones and sticks. Transported home, he died shortly after midnight. The searches for those responsible were immediately closed, but the following year, following the Matteotti crime, non-aligned Italian newspapers remembered the assassination and forced the consul of the Volunteer Militia for National Security (MVSN) to resign with a media campaign. Italo Balbo, indicating him as the instigator of the attack.

Those directly responsible were acquitted, and later avoided prison due to the resulting amnesty. John Paul II, speaking of him, wrote: «Don Minzoni died as a "chosen victim" of blind and brutal violence, but the radical meaning of that immolation far exceeds the simple desire to oppose an oppressive regime. Above all, the aim was to destroy his educational action aimed at training young people."

Annamaria Gobbato

NP Novembre 2023