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12 December 2020A "street priest" will lead the diocese of Naples, the largest in the South, in the coming years.

Pope Francis, in fact, chose Domenico Battaglia (Don Mimmo), 57, a native of Calabria, who has been bishop of the small diocese of Cerreto Sannita (Benevento) since 2016.



Don Mimmo will succeed Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe (he has been in the chair of Sant'Aspreno for the last 14 years) who he left due to his age limit and after a two-year extension granted by the Pope. The announcement of Don Mimmo's appointment as archbishop of Naples was given simultaneously by the Holy See, in the Neapolitan diocese and in Cerreto Sannita, even if the name had been circulating with insistence for several months.



In the message addressed to the Neapolitan faithful, Don Mimmo has already hinted at the guidelines of his pastoral governance of a diocese whose territory (which goes from the borders of the Stabiese area to the Phlegraean area) must deal with evident "problems , some old and some new "- he said - but which in any case" represents the real treasure of the South ".

"Alongside the desire of this humanity that wants to get up again, there are many who hope - he wrote again - and fight every day for justice, honesty, equality and preference for the weakest, but also for the lack of work, which remains the real scourge of this new society ".



Don Mimmo Battaglia, before arriving in Cerreto Sannita, was president of the Calabrese Solidarity Center, a structure linked to the Therapeutic Communities (Fict) of Don Mario Picchi.

From 2000 to 2006 he was vice president of the Bethany Foundation of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Catanzaro-Squillace.

From 2006 to 2015 he held the position of national president of the Italian Federation of Therapeutic Communities.



The new archbishop of Naples received, among others, the messages of good wishes from the president of the Campania regional council, Vincenzo De Luca, from the mayor of Naples, Luigi de Magistris and from the former governor of Campania, Antonio Bassolino, while Don Luigi Ciotti , president of Libera, wrote that he is "a spiritual guide capable of immersing himself in the history of people, starting with the most fragile, poor, forgotten. A pastor also for many young people, whose needs, aspirations and anxieties he knows how to intercept. A reference point".

For the minister Vincenzo Spadafora certainly "he will be able to better face all the challenges that this task will pose to him, also thanks to his life path, which has always seen him close to the weakest and the marginalized".



The new archbishop of Naples will most likely enter the diocese by the third decade of next January.

Until that date, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, 77 years old, trained at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, for 14 years in Naples, after having led the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, will be leading the Church of Naples, but as apostolic administrator, be he was the animator of the Jubilee of 2000 with Pope John Paul II and having carried out a long service in the Secretariat of State and in Vatican diplomacy.

"I have seen many beautiful things in this diocese. It is a reality with many difficulties but very rich in holiness", said Cardinal Sepe, after announcing the appointment of his successor.

Then he recalled the charity initiatives (including the Christmas charity auction and the Casa di Tonia) that were started but made possible, he specified, "thanks to the heart of the Neapolitans".

Retired Sepe will not leave Naples: he will go to live in Capodimonte, in a house that in the past also welcomed his predecessors (Cardinals Corrado Ursi and Michele Giordano).

"What will I do? - he said at the press conference - I will devote myself to prayer and reading".

Looking at the sea of ​​Naples from the window of that house because, he concluded, "I want to die with the sea in my eyes".