Pope Francis has decided to clear the
path towards the beatification of Salvo D'Acquisto while he is
being treated at the Agostino Gemelli hospital for double
pneumonia, the Vatican said on Tuesday.
During an audience granted Monday to Vatican Secretary of State,
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the Substitute for General Affairs
Mons. Edgar Pena Parra, the pontiff decided that the late
Carabinieri police official could soon be beatified.
"Yesterday, during an audience granted to Cardinal Secretary of
State Pietro Parolin, and Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra,
Substitute for General Affairs, Pope Francis authorized the
Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate various Decrees
concerning those on the path to sainthood", the Vatican said.
Among them was the Decree regarding the "offering of life" of
the "Servant of God Salvo D'Acquisto, lay faithful, born in
Naples on 15 October 1920, and died in Palidoro, Italy, on 23
September 1943.
D'Acquisto was a member of the Italian Carabinieri during the
Second World War.
Born on October 15 1920, the first of many children in a modest
family, D'Acquisto became a Carabinieri officer at 18 and in
November 1940, after Italy entered the war, was sent to Libya
where he served until September 1942.
Back in Italy, D'Acquisto became the deputy commander of the
rural police station of Torrimpietra, outside of Rome.
After the armistice on September 8 1943, at a time of great
tension amid the occupation by Nazi troops of central and
northern Italy and the difficulties experienced by the Italian
army, as German soldiers were inspecting boxes of ammunition at
a military base in Torre di Palidoro nearby, one box exploded,
and two German soldiers died.
German officials decided the explosion wasn't an accident,
rounding up and arresting 22 people.
As the local police official, D'Acquisto did an investigation
into the explosion, questioning the 22 people who had been
arrested and then tried to explain to the Nazi commander that
the explosion was an accident, and that no one was responsible.
But the Nazis were determined to exact revenge, forcing the
prisoners to dig a mass grave and announcing they would be
executed.
So Salvo D'Acquisto told the German commander in charge of the
troops that he had arranged the explosion, and that he had acted
alone.
The civilians were released and D'Acquisto was shot before a
firing squad.
On February 15 1945, Italian military authorities awarded the
gold medal of military valor to his memory.
D'Acquisto learned "solid Christian values from his family",
said the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
"His moral rectitude sparked the admiration of military
colleagues in front of whom he was not ashamed to cross himself
and pray the rosary", said the Dicastery.
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