The church of the Immaculate Conception was packed and did not contain the entire crowd of faithful who had gathered for the announcement of the new archbishop of Crotone and Santa Severina, who comes from Milan for the first time. There was great anticipation in the community because the see had been vacant since last August 24, when Monsignor Angelo Panzetta became coadjutor of the archbishop of Lecce, Michele Seccia. Don Alberto Torriani will take over from him, who arrives in Crotone with a reputation as a manager and educator, as well as a pastor, being the rector of the Collegio San Carlo in Milan. The change in leadership of the Archdiocese has sparked mixed reactions. First of all, sensations of “wonder and amazement, not in a negative sense, because we have never had a bishop of Milan”, he tells Christian family Monsignor Ezio Limina, president of the Cathedral Chapter, administrator of the Rosario parish, founder of the “Padre Pio” soup kitchen and historical memory of the Crotone Church. «Monsignor Panzetta was loved and appreciated for the horizons he was able to indicate to us. But he accepted an explicit request made to him by the Holy Father because the bishop of Lecce needed a presence to support him in the governance of the diocese. Request supported by the Apulian bishops who indicated him.”
However, Monsignor Panzetta’s transfer was accompanied by controversy due to the alleged – more than ever alleged – demotion. In his farewell he told the faithful that he would bring with him “only the good”. “Some things I don’t want to carry,” he added. After four and a half years, he wanted to relive the good and bad times. “I don’t want to carry – said Panzetta – the slander that I have received, because I know the human, ministerial and vocational misery from which I come”. And he spoke of the “political dwarfism” of those who tried to run an “election campaign” on his shoulders. “I’m sorry for the people who publicly made terrible judgments about me without me ever speaking to them.” Ecclesiastical circles have always been full of anonymous letters and “crows”. Monsignor Limina, with his balance, speaks of “uncontainable drifts which today are amplified on social media”.
There are those who say that Torriani is “out of the picture” and is convinced that it is a clear choice of Pope Francis, in a land that expresses four bishops (Fortunato Morrone, metropolitan archbishop of Reggio Calabria and Bova, Antonio Caiazzo, archbishop of Matera and Irsina, Antonio Staglianò, bishop emeritus of Noto, Serafino Parisi, bishop of Lamezia Terme). ). The announcement was made at the same time in Crotone, by the apostolic administrator Claudio Maniago, archbishop of Catanzaro and Squillace, and in the Curia of Milan. A nomination accompanied by Torriani’s message which begins with a quote from Italo Calvino from “Invisible Cities” and reiterates Francis’ invitation to cultivate encounters and relationships. Perhaps there is a need for this in the Crotone Church. More relationships. There is also a need to rekindle the community and complete the renovation of the Cathedral, the Marian sanctuary, and the episcope.
There are those who accuse Monsignor Panzetta of having wanted to leave the Archdiocese of Crotone and of not having taken a position on some burning issues. But there are also those, like Monsignor Limina, who remember his commitment. For example, the one in support of family members of the victims and survivors of the Cutro shipwreck, where, on a freezing dawn in February 2023, a hundred migrants lost their lives. «He knelt in front of the coffins lined up at the PalaMilone, where President Mattarella came», recalls Monsignor Limina.
To take the place of Panzetta who presented himself almost as a worker priest, son of a worker from the Ilva of Taranto, in a city like Crotone which is a small Taranto because here are buried the poisons of 70 years of heavy industry which for 30 years are not reclaimed, he is a priest born in 1971 in Bollate. Formerly parish vicar of San Biagio di Monza, he was responsible for pastoral care in Monza. He was also vice-principal of the parish schools of San Biagio in Monza, rector of the Collegio Rotondi in Gorla Minore (Varese) and today directs the Collegio San Carlo in Milan. The episcopal consecration will take place in the Cathedral of Milan on February 22nd, at 3 pm. From the Madonnina to the Madonna di Capocolonna.
