FORLONI Giulio (Father)

From the homily of Fr. Piero Trameri scj
for the funeral of Fr. Giulio

"We have gathered round the Lord’s altar, first to celebrate Him, to listen to His word of hope, to renew our faith in his mystery of death and resurrection, and to be comforted by Him at the time of parting from a person so dear to us as Father Giulio... We are also here to gather the testimony of his life and thank God for the marvels accomplished in him and by him.

We have heard in Mark’s Gospel the narration of a typical day of Jesus, who teaches with authority in the synagogue of Capharnaüm, cures a man possessed by the devil and who, at Peter’s house, cures this latter’s mother-in-law ; then, in the evening, once again he cures many persons sick or possessed by the devil, who crowd at the door. The next morning, he gets up before dawn to retire in a desert place and pray.

I have thought of this passage to evoke Fr. Giulio’s memory, as I think he tried and succeeded to imitate this day of Jesus during his whole life, before being paralysed by this mysterious, dreadful disease which dims mental light.

Yesterday evening, his sister talked to me about Fr. Giulio as “a priest always running”. (Did you hear how often Mark uses the expression “at once” when he speaks of Jesus?). The same for Fr.Giulio: at once, now, at once. The best definition is of a “priest always running”, from what I could see along those years I lived with him at Albiate. We wondered how he could go into a room to give help to the handicapped persons of the Brianza group, then into another room to come and offer in haste some pists of reflection to the group of engaged people, without forgetting to have a snack in the community, to go and swallow another mouthful with some members of his family coming to visit him. Like Jesus in Capharnaüm, consumed in love and zeal for the people in need and faithful to the mission trusted to him.

...He was also able to retire himself like Jesus in a lonely spot, perhaps in the mountains he loved or in the silence of the morning, to pray, think and prepare the lessons or lectures destined to the numerous youngsters he met in the school or associative world, particularly of Comunione e Liberazione, and in the many parishes of the Brianza where he exerted his sacerdotal ministry. Ready to answer each call, able to reproduce always in facts the “Here I am, send me" reminded by Isaiah in the first reading and which is a pillar of the Betharramite spirituality.

Only one who had assimilated in his deepest heart the impulse of the Word Incarnate could repeat “here I am, send me” when, in 1991, our religious family had decided to launch an experimental home for AIDS sick persons, alone and abandoned by their families, in Monteporzio Catone, on the hills South of Rome.

I remember as if it were yesterday the day when, in a meeting of the Provincial Council, as we looked for a volunteer for this service near the last ones, Fr. Giulio said: “I’m ready for this new call”. As a member of the Provincial Council, headded: “One must give the example. Here I am, I do go”. He took a leap in the dark, only armed with his obedience and self-giving to God’s will, like Abraham, and with his love for those most in need. “God gave his life for us ; we must also give our lives for our brothers”, John reminded us in the second reading. “We love neither by words or by tongue, but by acts and in truth”.

And “the priest always running” started without delay, with his pilgrim’s bag. During twenty-seven years, he went to-and-fro between Rome and the Brianza to visit his friends, to tell the sick people’s needs, to collect funds for his work, able to carry away everybody by his enthusiasm and the energy of one who gives his whole life for the cause of the Gospel. Coming back, he had to watch the sick during the night, then, during the day, to give the humblest services, and also to serve the parish, the groups of engaged people, the patient, enlightened listening (with a capital L) of the Word for anyone who showed one’s need.

Our Founder, Saint Michael Garicoïts, was dreaming of a group of priests who, like a flying camp of elite soldiers, would be ready to run everywhere necessary. I think Fr. Giulio fully realized this ideal.

These last years, ironical fate or unfathomable mystery, this priest who spent his whole life with an unthinkable vitality, serving so many needy people, faithful to the end to the received mandate, had to stop his run, like a worn-out engine the turns of which slow down little by little. Deprived from the gift to enjoy even a little the fruits of his work, enclosed in a painful silence, Fr. Giulio, however, was able to give shy smiles to his visitors.

The Lord of Life has tenderly opened His arms to him, and surely has given him back the light of mind and heart, to taste the blessings He prepares in the renewed world. We are here to thank Him and to give thanks for the precious gift He has reserved for each of us through Fr. Giulio’s life, example, testimony and friendship. This gift, I am sure, will be jealously treasured by all of us in our hearts.

Fr Piero Trameri scj
Regional Vicar