The funerals of father Oreste Benzi, the founder and president of the "Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII", who died last Friday of a heart attack aged 82, will take place in the auditorium of the Congress Hall in Rimini, this morning at 10.30 am. At least 8,000 people from all the countries in which father Oreste Benzi’s community works are expected to attend Mass, which will be officiated by the bishop of Rimini, mgr. Francesco Lambiasi, and jointly celebrated by mgr. Carlo Maria Celli (president of the Papal Council for Social Communication), mgr. Stanislaw Rylko (president of the Papal Council for the Lay) and mgr. Elio Sgreccia (president of the Papal Pro-Life Academy), among others. The words of the priest of the "threadbare cassock" had written just three months ago are quoted on the day of the funeral: "As I close my eyes to this earth, the people who will be near me will say: he is dead. My hands will be cold, my eye will no longer see, but in fact death does not exist, because, as soon as I close my eyes to this earth, I will open up to the infinity of God".
