Gelmini

Era per tutti il «Don» e tale resterà fino alla fine dei suoi giorni nella comunicazione verbale. Adesso però Pietro Gelmini, dopo 59 anni di sacerdozio, è tornato allo stato laico.
iL Tempo

[translation]


Joseph Ratzinger accepted the request the anti - drug priest had made to be defrocked
Pietro Gelmini is not a "Reverend" anymore
by Marino Collaccianim.collacciani@iltempo.it

For everyone he was the "Reverend" and as such he will remain for his entire life in terms of verbal communication. Now, however, Pietro Gelmini after 59 years of priesthood, has gone back to the lay state. That is he can't celebrate Mass or give confession anymore. That has been decided by the Pope accepting the request the same founder of the Incontro (Encounter) Community had made to remain with his boys until his death and face the investigation for sexual abuses against some former guests of his community without any involvement of the ecclesiastical authority.

Pietro Gelmini (in the end) expressed "a great joy" and in his community they deem that was "a sign of attention and availability on the Vatican side in a spirit of unity between the Rev. Pierino and the Church".

The news came out in the day of his coming back to Italy from South America (he was 83-years-old on January 23) where he spent a period of rest to overcome some cardiac problems started on last December 20. At Mulino Silla of Amelia, where the headquarters of his Incontro Community is located, his boys can't wait to meet him and make a feast.

And the priest's thoughts, when he started his return trip journey, were directed just to them. "I return to my sons of love" adding to appreciate "immensely the paternal and immediate response of the Holy Father which allows him to serenely remain to the guide of the Incontro community.
And - as he explained in the moment he asked Benedict XVI to be reduced to the lay state - that is the commitment the priest doesn't intend to abandon "perinde cadaver ", until his death. For that reason he'll also found a lay fraternity dedicated to the spreading of "Christ therapy" all over the world. It will be a fraternity open to clergymen, too - they say at the Incontro Community. It's clear Pietro Gelmini hopes the lay fraternity dedicated to Christ therapy would be and continue to be in the absolute faithfulness to the Church.

As to judiciary aspect, there is to be said that in the next weeks Gelmini and his lawyers will have to face the investigation of the Prosecutor in Terni, the city where he is being investigated for sexual abuse committed against nine former guests of his Community and that according to the allegations lasted for ten years. The priest, who always proclaimed his innocence, was notified on December 27, 2007, the formal act of the end of the investigation and now Prosecutor Barbara Mazzullo will have to decide to arraign him or reject the charges.