Semeraro presides over beatification of Marchioni, Comini, Capelli

Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, presided over the beatification of three priests killed during the Monte Sole massacre in 1944. The ceremony took place on September 27 at the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna.

The newly beatified men are Ubaldo Marchioni, Elia Comini, and Martino Capelli. Marchioni was a diocesan priest, Comini was a Salesian, and Capelli was a Dehonian. They were killed by the SS during the massacres that occurred in the Monte Sole area between September 29 and October 5, 1944.

During his homily, Semeraro described the men as examples of a Church that does not flee. He noted that while the three could have saved themselves, they chose to stay with their assigned communities, an act he called an expression of pastoral love and faithfulness. Semeraro added that their lives were not broken by evil but brought to fulfillment through love, and that their blood proclaims Christ rather than seeking vengeance.