Francesco Bonifacio - Controversy

Controversy

The peace treaty of Paris signed on 1947, when Istria almost entirely was ceded to Yugoslavia, is still an issue that mark the relations between Italy and the new states of the former Federation of Yugoslavia. The solution is not easy. The two sides have a lot to say and everyone has its own versions. As for Don Francesco Bonifacio issue there are some fact, that it’s valuable to mention here, and that will help to see his personal story with equity. Right wing media, like Ragione Politica.it, have “pumped up” the public with statements that the communist partisans murdered 120 Italian priests, and Don Francesco Bonifacio is mentioned as one of them. On July 11, 2006, Vincenzo Merlo’s portal wrote that Don Bonifacio wrote in his diary in 1946: “How do days go by? Between disappointment and fear.”It describes the priest’s death almost in the same way as other media, but it adds that he was thrown in the foiba Martinezi (180 meters deep), or Dupci, as Croats from Bujstina call it. This author accused Marshal Tito’s Slav communists who threw thousands “Istrians and Triestines, Italian and Slavs, fascists and antifascists” into pits… However, on February 7, 2006, the “Avvenire” wrote that Don Luigi Rocco, who received a visit from Don Bonifacio in 1946 in Groznjan, stated that the priest was thrown into the pit Martinesi in Groznjan, and this information was also spread by other media. Pope Ratzinger’s internet blog features articles from many news papers and agencies which mention the foiba Martinezi near Buje. Above all, many historians and publicists in Italy do not mention the foiba Martinesi and the victims in their books and publications, not even one of the greatest counterfeiters of historic events of Istria, Luigi Papo, war commander of the Fascist garrison in the Istrian town of Motovun. In his book “Albo d’oro” (Trieste 1995) Luigi Papo from Montona now Motovun, wrote about the death of Don Bonifacio, saying that Tito’s partisans arrested him and murdered him the next day, on September 11, 1946.

Famous Istrian priest Mons. Bozo Milanovic, author of many books on Istrian history and crimes committed against priests, wrote a book “Istra u dvadesetom stoljecu” (“Istria in the twentieth century”, Pazin 1996). In this book he described the work of the “college of priests St. Pavao for Istria”, 1946. He wrote that they discussed a “secretly missing Italian minister in Bujstina (…)” while Ivan Grah, minister in the Istrian villages of Sisan and Liznjan, in his book “Istarska crkva u ratnom vrihoru” (1943–1945) (Istrian Church in war winds), published in Pazin in 1992, described the crimes against Istrian priests but never mentioned Don Bonifacio. However, in the feuilleton Istarski Svecenici - Ratne i Poratne Zrtve (Istrian priests–war and post-war victims), published in the monthly “Ladonja” in August 2005, Ivan Grah wrote about Francesco Bonifacio. Since 1939 till his suffered death, he was at the head of the parish of Krasica in Bujstina. After the end of the war, the Yugo-Communist authorities could not bear him because he interfered too much with their ideological work. On September 10, 1946, came the news that in Bujstina they–the communists- had a list of younger priests who had to be “liquidated” by the Popular Guard. Don Bonifacio was first on the list, but he decided to carry on with his duties as a priest. The following day, September 11, in the evening, the Popular Guard was waiting for him as he returned home on foot from Groznjan and, after a crabbed discussion, he was coercively taken away. Since then, all traces of him have disappeared and the place of his death remaines unknown (…)”. The Communist writer, publicist and journalist Giacomo Scotti, an Italian Communist expatriate from Naples, in his book “Cry from the foiba” (Rijeka 2008) does not mention the murder of Don Bonifacio or his body being thrown into a foiba. Giacomo Scotti a great expert on this topic in Croatia and Italy wrote: “As soon as I started writing about the beatification of Don Bonifacio being held in Trieste and about the murder, I stated that this priest is not present on the list of foibe victims. The League of Anti-fascist Fighters told me that Don Bonifacio went missing in September 1946, and that there is no information on his murder or on his death in a pit. The murder of Don Bonifacio, said Tomo Ravnic for Javno.com, president of the SAB of the Istria County, throws shame on antifascist fighters. Now the question is: why does the Vatican keep quiet over the lies of Italian media and politicians about Tito’s partisans murdering Don Francesco Bonifacio and throwing him into a foiba? And why has the Archbishop Angelo Amato, Chief of Congregation for the Causes of Saints, accepted the proposal for the beatification which reads that the priest Bonifacio was thrown into a foiba if this has not been confirmed.” The beatification ceremony was held in the Trieste Cathedral of Saint Giusto on 4 October 2008 by Trieste Bishop’s Eugenio Ravignani; The Archbishop Angelo Amato, represented the Pontiff. In 2005 a Trieste square was named after Francesco Bonifacio.