VATICAN - "Thank you Father Massimo for your example and for your service to God, to the Church, to Missions and to our Congregation"

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - " Thank you Father Massimo for your example and for your service to God, to the Church, to Missions and to our Congregation. Thank you for your loving care towards us; and now that you are with Jesus, intercede for us and for the evangelization of the world. Our thanks is also united with all the many Bishops, priests, men and women religious and faithful in the missionary world who have already written to us ensuring their closeness. " These are the words spoken this morning by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, in the Roman church of "Regina Pacis" where Fr. Massimo Cenci’s funeral was celebrated, a missionary of the PIME, Undersecretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, who died suddenly on 11 May.
Going through the main stages of Fr. Cenci’s life, the Cardinal Prefect recalled meeting him in 1990, during his diplomatic service at the Apostolic Nuncio in Brasilia: "I was impressed by his vivacity and his pastoral missionary enthusiasm," he stressed. From 2001 he was Undersecretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, "office which he held with great diligence and generosity until the Lord called him to himself," said Cardinal Filoni, who continued "He leaves an emptiness that reminds us of the Christian hope, but also many memories full of affection and gratitude. Yes, because we are grateful to God for having given him to his family, to the Church as a priest, to PIME as its generous member, to evangelization as a missionary, to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples as Undersecretary and for all of us as a close and friendly brother."
In particular, Cardinal Filoni emphasized the " Fr. Cenci’s extraordinary sensus fidei", "which led him to evaluate everything in harmony with the faith of the Church, the Pope, with superiors and with his brothers," and also "an extraordinary sensus Ecclesiae, which made this other characteristic of his life mature, the missionary passion "that drove him to the Amazon, often among the poorest and neediest.
"Today we want to remember Fr. Massimo like this, in the arms of the risen Jesus, that he proclaimed, and gave testimony. We are confident that the Risen Lord called him at his side on the day of his 37th anniversary of his ordination. It is in this vision that we pray today, and thank God for having given him as a, generous and enthusiastic brother."
After Mass the telegram sent by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State was read, in which the Supreme Pontiff spiritually participates to the mourning and recalls "Fr. Cenci’s generous contribution to the evangelizing mission of the Church, first as a missionary in Brazil and then in the service of the Holy See ". The Holy Father "raises fervent prayers to God for his soul, entrusted to the maternal intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of the Missions".
The Superior General of PIME, Fr. Giambattista Zanchi, finally recalled Fr. Cenci’s great commitment to the mission, thanking in particular Cardinal Filoni who presided at the Eucharist, and the Cardinals Crescenzio Sepe and Ivan Dias, who had Fr. Cenci as a collaborator of the Missionary Congregation, in addition to the Archbishops and Bishops who concelebrated the ceremony, along with several dozen priests. In addition to all the staff of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the international Secretariats of the Pontifical Mission Societies, the church was packed with men and women religious and laity, linked to the missionary world that had occasion to meet father Massimo Cenci as a "generous and enthusiastic friend and brother." (SL) (Agenzia Fides 14/5/2012)