Second ten days of April, the sun blazing, a group of Fiume people on the streets of Pisa determined to meet an important witness of their history. The path to take is not always easy: whether to stop the memory in the years between the two world wars, in the post-war period or to consider as part of the history of a dispersed people also what happened afterwards, in the exodus and up to today. All moments that cannot be renounced and all to be saved. With religious respect. The group agrees on the answer.

Why Pisa? To meet Don Severino Dianich, the famous theologian, after a necessary introduction.

Having left Fiume in 1947, Monsignor Ugo Camozzo, the last Italian bishop of Fiume, became archbishop of Pisa – elected after a period of waiting at the Seminary of Venice. Since he considered Fiume his city of choice (he was born in Milan), he let the exiled parish priests, now scattered throughout Italy, know: “I am in Pisa, if you come I will be happy to host you… because here we need ministerial integrations, so you seminarians come and also the priests, those who are already in service”. A phrase collected from the testimony of Monsignor Egidio Crisman, “Fiuman patoco”, before he left us a few years ago. He loved to express himself in just this way, mixing language with dialect, as many of the priests who joined Monsignor Camozzo must have done.

But how many were there?

Again Monsignor Crisman: “The old canons of the Cathedral of Fiume took action, who arrived with the intention of giving what they were able to give. In the meantime, we young people, having finished our studies, were consecrated by Camozzo, we were a nice group of priests, including the 'veceti', about 25, all from Fiume”. He also sent us a list that we consulted with Don Dianich: Giovanni Cenghia, Clemente Crisman, Egido Crisman, Alberto Cvecich, naturally Severino Dianich, Vittorio Ferian, Gabriele Gelussi, Floriano Grubesich, Mario Maracich, Rino Peressini, Fulvio Parisotto, Giuseppe Percich, Oscar Perich, Ariele Pillepich, Francesco Pockaj, Antonio Radovani, Giovanni Regalati, Aldo Rossini, Arsenio Russi, Janni Sabucco, Giovanni Slavich, Giacomo Desiderio Sovrano, Giuseppe Stagni and Romeo Vio, from Veglia Mario Maracich.

Giovanni Paolo Benotto, the current archbishop of Pisa, remembers them with particular affection: “We called them the 'pretich' because of their very particular surnames,” he says fondly. One senses that their Italian was also different, it was certainly not the Tuscan of the Pisans and some words of the Fiume dialect, here and there, emerged curiously and spitefully.

We imagine him, almost with emotion, as we prepare to reach the place where he lives, in a beautiful outbuilding in the garden of a nursing home run by nuns in the center of Pisa, Don Severino Dianich. “He is waiting for you,” a nun welcomes us. He is at his desk, smiling and friendly, the mutual sympathy is immediate. Franco Papetti and Diego Zandel illustrate the new course of the Association of Italian Fiumani in the World, we talk about the Voice of Fiume that Don Dianich follows with interest. We all remember the exodus from Fiume together, each with their own particular memories. “I was just a boy,” Don Severino tells us, “when war was declared in 1940, after a few months I would have started first grade.” Don Severino was one of the seminarians of Pisa, the last living witness of the group of “pretich” from Fiume who served the community in the surrounding parishes with a zeal that everyone still remembers. And it is precisely he, a great theologian, who today tries to make people understand, especially young people, that the parish priest is not an untouchable figure, he is an individual to whom one can turn as an equal. He declared this at a meeting a few months ago. “In my opinion,” he declared, “that inveterate habit has weighed and still weighs heavily, even on young priests, indeed, for them it is even accentuated, whereby the priest is considered a 'different' person, with something more unattainable, because he is a sacred person. All this causes enormous damage, as I also noted during the conference in my work group. Two African priests, for example, said that in their country no one ever dares to criticize a priest. In our country priests are criticized a lot, but in the media, very little instead face to face…”.

An observation that reveals a lot about the modernity of his approach achieved in years of direct involvement in the great and constant change of the world that theology follows, interprets, tries to explain and to which it adapts. All this mediated by the strength of his personality, by the fact of being extremely authoritative because he has the rare gift of going straight to the heart of the issues, with a few well-directed words. Fiume nature? We smile, as if it were a joke, a prank, but with a conscious foundation of truth.

Life after the exodus

The visit proceeds quickly, focusing on life after the exodus and the years in the seminary. Don Dianich spent a lot of time in Rome, the first periods as a freshman at the Gregorian University: "In those years - he recalls - it was difficult to approach good theological literature without knowing French and German. Thus began an adventure, both in his studies and in the many experiences that Rome offered". He has witnessed over the decades the great transformations of society and the church, ever since that council of October 1962 that he recalls in his book "Too Short My Century". Reading it all in one breath because it is captivating, one realizes that it will need to be picked up again and analyzed several times because it contains truths that are difficult to reach by following mere information. Don Severino, an internationally renowned theologian, is a witness of the short century, he has traveled all over the world enjoying a privileged observatory, within theological parameters, with a rare analytical capacity and the possibility of glimpsing changes and new hopes.

And only after many words, the real reason for the AFIM visit to Pisa is revealed: on November 7, in the city where Bishop Camozzo and the 25 religious men from Fiume went into exile, a conference will be held with renowned scholars, in the presence of Archbishop Paolo Giovanni Benotto, Don Severino Dianich himself, Marko Medved, a historian from Fiume and a professor of theology who is about to publish a volume on the last Italian bishop of Fiume, Monsignor Ugo Camozzo, other scholars from Pisa and, last but not least, the parishioners who knew the priests from Fiume and who faced a long period of interaction and growth with them. Another way of highlighting the excellence of Fiume in the world.

Moments of recomposition

At the moment of farewell, the ritual hugs, to underline the value of an indelible day that will now allow us to reach new milestones of memory, together. On November 7th and throughout the morning in the hall of the Bishopric made available by the Archbishop, the debate will take place, open to all those who wish to participate, to learn, to testify, to be aware that these moments of recomposition of memory and of people are fundamental for everyone: a return to the great family of exiles and those who remained.

Rosanna Turcinovich Giuricin
Source: The Voice of the People – 14/05/2024