Farewell to Monsignor Luigi Bettazzi, bishop emeritus of Ivrea, last witness of the Council. He was 99 years old.
"The bishop - the diocese reports - received the Eucharist, the Anointing of the Sick and the Papal Blessing, with great lucidity, responding in a whisper to prayers and showing smiling gratitude to the people who stood by him" .
Luigi Bettazzi was born on 23 November 1923 in Treviso, in his youth he moved to Bologna, the city where he was ordained a priest in 1946. In 1963 he was appointed titular bishop of Tagaste and auxiliary bishop of Bologna. He participated in three sessions of the Second Vatican Council at the end of which he was ordained bishop of Ivrea, a diocese he administered until 1999.
In 1968 he was appointed national president of Pax Christi, the international Catholic movement for peace, and in 1978 he became its international president until 1985, winning the UNESCO International Prize for Peace Education for his merits.
Author of numerous books, he was the last living Italian bishop present at the Second Vatican Council.
(Unioneonline/ss)
