On October 7, 1978, during the rite of their marriage celebrated in Assisi, in the crypt of the Saint, they insistently asked the Poverello to be able to become saints together. Now that the cause for their beatification has officially opened, it seems we can say that St. Francis has fully answered their prayer. In a Locride too often at risk of legality, the testimony of ecclesial, civic and professional commitment of the two Servants of God is a sign of hope and a guarantee for the future of this land.
Franco Bono was born in 1948 in Lamezia Terme and from 1975 onwards he served at the Locri hospital as a specialist in anesthesia, resuscitation and cardiology, soon becoming the soul of the resuscitation department. Here they recall his qualities of full availability and high professionalism, but above all his ability to accompany and support terminally ill people with his unshakable faith. In Locri, together with work, he also found love, becoming engaged to Maria Rosaria De Angelis, born on October 7, 1955 and still a medical student.
Both come from the ranks of Catholic Action and are indebted to it for their spiritual formation, which offers solid foundations for their marriage. "They were the expression of mature love and mature love is always the one that opens up to others", say the friends and in fact the couple spends themselves generously in diocesan pastoral care accompanying the journey of engaged couples, meeting other married couples, putting their professionalism and medical experience at the disposal of others. Because Maria Rosaria, as soon as she graduated, dedicated herself to the profession of general practitioner, accepting it and living it as a mission. “In my profession I try to live the Gospel. Seeing Jesus in the smallest, in the sick, in the lonely, in the marginalized, leads me to give myself to each one beyond the pure and simple professional duty and my giving of myself comes back to me multiplied in gratitude, joy, understanding”, he confides to his closest friends. .
While her husband continues his commitment to Catholic Action, becoming its diocesan president for nine years and founding the Ecclesial Cultural Commitment Movement (MEIC) in the diocese, she is active in the Focolare Movement, becoming responsible for the whole of Locride. "In the climate of widespread illegality in which we live, we are convinced that the political class must give a sign, must know how to say that the music has changed inside the Palazzo": after having said it publicly many times, in 1993 the time came for Franco to put it into practice, putting yourself personally on the line. He is running for mayor to focus on "the citizen with his rights and primary needs" in a city where, in his own words, "perhaps more than elsewhere, politics has expressed personalities, patronage, domination and comparison" . He is elected, but the pressures of the old nomenclature, clamorously excluded from his list, are so strong that just six months later he has to leave, but he continues undaunted in his commitment to promote the "sanctification of consciences", which he believes to be the only way to positively affect the Calabrian and southern reality.
From their marriage were born five children, the last of which sees the light after his death. In fact, on 6 April 1996, Holy Saturday, Franco was the victim of an accident on the artificial bobsleigh track in Sila, during which he managed to save the life of his youngest son. He dies after 18 days in a coma, on April 24, and at that moment the ecclesial community realizes the role that Franco has played in it, building relationships, bearing witness to the faith, humbly serving others. Maria Rosaria faces the terrible ordeal of widowhood with faith in God, love for her children and her commitment as a doctor for another four years, until the discovery of pancreatic cancer in her which electrocutes her in 39 days. She died on December 15, 2000, after trying to "love Jesus Forsaken, not in words, but more and more, better and more concretely". Chiara Lubich announces her death to focolarini from all over the world, calling her a "true human and divine masterpiece". And their bishop tried to summarize the spiritual adventure of this couple as follows: "one ran for the other towards heaven and together they reached peaks of mystery, heroism in the present, professionalism in service, hospitality in the incomprehensible vastness of the will of God". In short, an ordinary holiness that attracts precisely because it is accessible to all.
From the site santiebeati.it
