Francesco Bonifacio - Beatification

Beatification

The then Bishop of Trieste Antonio Santin, born in Rovigno now Rovinj in Croatia, first submitted the proposal for the beatification of Don Francesco Bonifacio back in 1957. Santin had good and bad positions concerning the Church’s credibility in Istria before and during the Second World War, and the biggest minus in his biography were the words of praise from Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, who he officially accompanied during his visit in Trieste in 1938. Mons. Eugenio Ravignani, current Bishop of Trieste himself born in Pola now Pula (Croatia), wrote a report on the priest’s murder on July 3, 1938. He wrote that the Don Francesco Bonifacio murdered on {{#dateformatSeptember 11 1946}}, in the evening at the age of 34 years and that for many years they knew nothing, until witnesses confirmed and shed light on what happened that night. All testimonies said that they beat him and threw him into a pit, the Bishop wrote, while some mentioned him being stoned, injured with a knife and shot. Then he described that the priest’s life end in a foiba, just like the Catholic newspaper “Avvenire” and other media wrote. However not one name of the witnesses who testified, has been given out forty, fifty or sixty years later–it seems that these are “top secret” data and this raises suspicion when talking about the victims of the foibe.