{"id":45455,"date":"2025-09-25T06:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T06:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.donbosco.press\/?p=45455"},"modified":"2025-09-25T06:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T06:47:12","slug":"monsignor-giuseppe-malandrino-and-the-servant-of-god-nino-baglieri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.donbosco.press\/en\/good-press\/monsignor-giuseppe-malandrino-and-the-servant-of-god-nino-baglieri\/","title":{"rendered":"Monsignor Giuseppe Malandrino and the Servant of God Nino Baglieri"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monsignor Giuseppe Malandrino, the ninth Bishop of the Noto diocese, returned to the House of the Father on 3 August 2025, the day on which the feast of the Patron Saint of the Diocese of Noto, Mary Ladder of Paradise, is celebrated. 94 years of age, 70 years of priesthood and 45 years of episcopal consecration are respectable numbers for a man who served the Church as a Shepherd with \u201cthe smell of the sheep\u201d as Pope Francis often emphasised.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Lightning rod of humanity
\n<\/strong>During his experience as pastor of the Diocese of Noto (1906.1998 \u2013 1507.2007), he had the opportunity to cultivate his friendship with the Servant of God Nino Baglieri. He almost never missed a \u201cstop\u201d at Nino\u2019s house when pastoral reasons took him to Modica. In one of his testimonies, Monsignor Malandrino says: \u201c\u2026finding myself at Nino\u2019s bedside, I had the vivid perception that this beloved sick brother of ours was truly a \u201clightning rod of humanity\u201d, according to a concept of sufferers so dear to me and which I also wanted to propose in the Pastoral Letter on the permanent mission You will be my witnesses<\/em>\u201d (2003). Monsignor Malandrino writes: \u201cIt is necessary to recognise in the sick and suffering, the face of the suffering Christ and to assist them with the same care and with the same love of Jesus in His passion, lived in a spirit of obedience to the Father and in solidarity with his brothers\u201d. This was fully embodied by Nino\u2019s dearest mother, Mrs. Peppina. She, a typical Sicilian woman, with a strong character and great determination. She replies to the doctor who proposes euthanasia for her son (given his serious health conditions and the prospect of a life as a paralytic), \u201cif the Lord wants him, he will take him, but if he leaves him to me like this, I am happy to look after him for life.\u201d Was Nino\u2019s mother aware of what she was going to face at that moment? Was Mary, the mother of Jesus, aware of how much pain she would have to suffer for the Son of God? The answer, when read with human eyes, does not seem easy, especially in our 21st <\/sup>century society where everything is unstable, fluctuating, consumed in an \u201cinstant\u201d. Mamma Peppina\u2019s Fiat became, like Mary\u2019s, a Yes of Faith and adherence to that will of God which finds fulfilment in knowing how to carry the Cross, in knowing how to give \u201csoul and body\u201d to the realisation of God\u2019s Plan.<\/p>\n

From suffering to joy
\n<\/strong>The friendship between Nino and Monsignor Malandrino was already underway when the latter was still bishop of Acireale. In fact, as early as 1993, through Father Attilio Balbinot, a Camillian very close to Nino, he presented him with his first book, \u201cFrom suffering to joy\u201d. In Nino\u2019s experience, the relationship with the Bishop of his diocese was one of total filiation. From the moment he accepted God\u2019s Plan for him, he made his \u201cactive\u201d presence felt by offering his sufferings for the Church, the Pope, and the Bishops (as well as priests and missionaries). This relationship of filiation was renewed annually on 6 May, the day of his fall, later seen as the mysterious beginning of a rebirth. On 8 May 2004, a few days after Nino celebrated the 36th<\/sup> anniversary of the Cross, Monsignor Malandrino went to his house. In memory of that meeting, he writes in his memoirs, \u201cit is always a great joy every time I see him and I receive so much energy and strength to carry my Cross and offer it with so much Love for the needs of the Holy Church and in particular for my Bishop and for our Diocese. May the Lord always give him more holiness to guide us for many years always with more ardour and love\u2026\u201d. Again: \u201c\u2026 the Cross is heavy but the Lord gives me so many Graces that make suffering less bitter and it becomes light and sweet; the Cross becomes a Gift, offered to the Lord with so much Love for the salvation of souls and the Conversion of Sinners\u2026\u201d. Finally, it should be emphasised how, on these occasions of grace, the pressing and constant request for \u201chelp to become a Saint with the daily Cross\u201d was never lacking. Nino, in fact, absolutely wanted to become a saint.<\/p>\n

An anticipated beatification
\n<\/strong>Moments of great significance in this sense were the funeral of the Servant of God on 3 March 2007, when Monsignor Malandrino himself, at the beginning of the Eucharistic Celebration, devoutly bent down, albeit with difficulty, to kiss the coffin containing Nino\u2019s mortal remains. It was an homage to a man who had lived 39 years of his existence in a body that \u201cdid not feel\u201d but which radiated joy of life in every way. Monsignor Malandrino emphasised that the celebration of the Mass, in the Salesian courtyard which had become an open-air \u201ccathedral\u201d for the occasion, had been an authentic apotheosis (thousands of people participated in tears) and it was clearly and communally perceived that they were not in front of a funeral, but a true \u201cbeatification\u201d. Nino, with his testimony of life, had in fact become a point of reference for many, young and old, lay people and consecrated persons, mothers and fathers of families, who, thanks to his precious testimony, were able to read their own existence and find answers that they could not find elsewhere. Monsignor Malandrino also repeatedly emphasised this aspect: \u201cin fact, every encounter with the dearest Nino was for me, as for everyone, a strong and vivid experience of edification and a powerful \u2013 in its sweetness \u2013 spur to patient and generous giving. The presence of the Bishop gave him immense joy every time because, in addition to the affection of the friend who came to visit him, he perceived the ecclesial communion. It is obvious that what I received from him was always much more than the little I could give him.\u201d Nino\u2019s fixed \u201cobsession\u201d was to \u201cbecome a saint\u201d; having fully lived and embodied the Gospel of Joy in Suffering, with his physical ailments and his total gift for the beloved Church, ensured that everything did not end with his departure to the Heavenly Jerusalem, but continued, as Monsignor Malandrino emphasised at the funeral. \u201c\u2026 Nino\u2019s mission now also continues through his writings as he himself had announced it in his spiritual Testament.\u201d \u201c\u2026 my writings will continue my testimony. I will continue to give Joy to everyone and to speak of the Great Love of God and the Wonders he has done in my life.\u201d This is still coming true because \u201ca city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house\u201d (Matthew 5:14-16). Metaphorically, it is intended to emphasise that \u201clight\u201d (understood in a broad sense) must be visible, sooner or later; what is important will come to light and will be recognised.
\nTo revisit these days \u2013 marked by the death of Monsignor Malandrino, by his funerals in Acireale (5 August, Our Lady of the Snow) and in Noto (7 August) with subsequent burial in the cathedral which he himself strongly wanted to be renovated after the collapse of 13 March 1996 and which was reopened in March 2007 (the month in which Nino Baglieri died) \u2013 means retracing this bond between two great figures of the Netine Church, strongly intertwined and both capable of leaving an indelible mark on it.<\/p>\n

Roberto Chiaramonte<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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