Nearly five hundred years ago Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego, a Native American, in Mexico. She wanted him to have the local bishop build a church where She “would show her love, her compassion, her help”. The place where Our Lady crossed the path of Juan Diego blossomed with roses. Juan Diego was so deeply marked by that encounter that he became a saint. He lived, for the rest of his life, in a room at the back of the chapel put up on the hill where Our Lady appeared to him. There he spent his time in prayer and welcoming visitors. Christianity was taking its first steps in our continent while Our Lady of Guadalupe took its people under her cloak and has become the Patroness of the Americas.
It is in this context that we are all glad to unite ourselves with Father Reno Aiardi in the celebration of his Golden Jubilee of Priesthood. He has spent all of his priestly life in the United States in missionary awareness activity and pastoral care; he deserves all our gratitude and esteem.
Father Reno is remembered both here on the East Coast where in 1975 he inaugurated the Somerset Mission Center and worked in an intense and creative way in it for 20 years, drawing many people to the Consolatas and offering events of various kinds to promote missionary awareness, and in California where, animated by missionary zeal, he became the Director of the Mission Office of the Diocese of San Bernardino and then the Pastor of St. Francis de Sales Parish in Riverside.
Riverside, CA: Fr. Reno, second from right, with Fr.s Lenny, Paolo, Peter and Louis, and Colleen, St. Francis de Sales Parish Book Keeper
The many people who know Father Reno, and we with them, admire his kindness, his wisdom and his leadership; but maybe, most of all, his attention to the single person who would come to him for help or advice. He is a pastor who is close to every sheep in his flock. Yet he does not forget those far away. While leading his Parish, Reno kept his position as the Director of the Diocesan Mission Office and organized Mission Appeals for people in need in other Countries, showing his vision of a Church that must be local and at the same time open to the wide world.
We all thank the Lord for Father Reno these days. And we are grateful to him as well. We convey to him, his family and friends our esteem and our gratitude for all he has been doing and who he is!
In this, Our Lady of Guadalupe is of great inspiration to all of us. She appeared to a Native American and wanted him to widen the vision of the Church’s authorities. She prods all of us ahead to give our help in building the Church in this continent. Keeping in our hearts the words she said to Juan Diego, “do not let your heart be troubled, and let nothing upset you. Is it not I, your Mother, who is here? Are you not under my protection?”
Fr. Paolo Fedrigoni, IMC, Somerset