DON FRANCO BENCINI
A MAN, A COMMUNITY BUILDER, A FAITHFUL SHEPHERD
Testimony of Cardinal Silvano Piovanelli:
Don Franco Bencini was a singular priest. You hardly saw him around. Even in the meetings of priests. But he was always there in the parish.
The parish was his home, his family.
I remember the impression it always made on me every time I've been to celebrate for the sacrament of Confirmation in its church, so beautiful in its pure lines and in its fourteenth-century frescoes, which remind us of ancient monastic splendors.
Don Franco had prepared everything with great precision and everything took place in the bare essentiality of the rite and in the attentive participation of those present. I realized that he looked at the young confirmands with pride, as a father looks at the children he is happy with. I had the clear impression of a long and above all accurate and precise preparation process. Beyond external forms, Don Franco was interested in the substance of faith.
He worked all his life - a very long life if you think that he was in San Donato in Polverosa as a parish priest since 1964 - for his church to return to that beauty, simplicity and freedom of forms it had in ancient times. And in this field, Don Franco has come a long way. Even the latest restorations, the latest liberations of the sacred building, made after his departure, are the result of his work and his passion.
But above all Don Franco did that pastoral work that does not stand out in the eyes, you do not measure by meters: Don Franco loved his people. And the people of him understood. Especially when he left due to age and illness, people felt the emptiness, they realized how important he was in San Donato in Polverosa. After all, this San Donato was reborn with him. Card. Ermenegildo Florit signed the decree that reconstitutes the parish after a centuries-old abandonment on June 1, 1963.
From every point of view - juridical, material, spiritual - what the community of San Donato in Polverosa is, it owes to Don Franco.
People rightly have it in their hearts and Don Franco, with his gruff and direct way, continues to tell everyone to continue to grow to be sincere men and women, committed to walking seriously on the paths of history and men and women of faith who they walk in the light of the Gospel and thus offer in their lives the luminous witness of the Risen and Living Jesus ”(25 March 2010).
Testimony of some early parishioners:
In the summer of 1963 Don Bencini (DonBe for those who frequent him) enters the Church of San Doanto for the first time, divided into two parts at the transept level. The only room available for Mass is the fuel oil deposit, which is cleaned and covered in the roof with jute fabric with the help of various boys who follow him from San Gervasio. In this period the DonBe bedroom is a transept colonnade where bats have free access every night. Financial aid is modest, but some friendly priests help him as they can (first among them, is Don Bensi). On Christmas '63 the Church is open to worship. During the winter the only source of heat are the floorboards of the library into which the central nave of the Church has long since been transformed: every evening whoever wants to saw with him progressively all the boards and set up a bedroom under the bell tower. The bell tower no longer has bells, but the DonBe begins collecting all the available copper which is pulled out of the sheath and will serve as a bargaining chip for the first bell.
The "mason" priest continues his work in the company of the first boys of the parish, the "old" of San Gervasio and many parishioners who observe the work of the new parish priest and are progressively involved in his zeal. In 1966, after the flood in Florence, a kindergarten was set up in the Fiat area, consisting of a canteen, two classrooms and services (complete with central heating) thanks to the donation of the municipality of two large metal sheds lying without use; all the setting up of the kindergarten, almost unique in the area, is ensured by the parishioners who manage it (together with the soccer field) until the withdrawal of the permit in '69 -'70 by the management of Fiat. At the same time the recovery of the church continues, with the demolition of the wall of the nave, the reconstruction of the apse, the emptying of the cellars, the construction of the rectory, the installation of the heating of the church (which replaces the catalytic stoves in gas). All the resulting material is huge and is removed at night with the use of a used Ape that transports it to the Piagge, with the help of sleepy volunteers who from 11 pm to midnight accompany him on numerous journeys.
For many years, a parish cinema for children was set up, showing Sunday films; Sunday catechism at 10 am is the moment of greatest contact with the children, to whom you are enthusiastically introduced to the meaning of the Holy Scriptures. Even with rudimentary means (alcohol duplicators) he was among the first to print the Mass booklet, almost always finishing the text a few minutes before Sunday mass and having composed it during the night. v In '95, again with an act of personal purchase and sale and subsequent donation to the curia (a method chosen several times by the DonBe to speed up the procedures and results), the church acquires its definitive appearance with the inauguration of 1997.
The parishioners he meets in carrying out the sacraments are well impressed by the relationship with the priest which is always incisive, coherent and essential. He is particularly interested in the people who most need guidance and who seem furthest from the gospel. Many of those who are already on a religious journey, albeit a lukewarm one, feel scarcely involved and are unable to integrate.
What is the message of this rigid and severe priest, first of all with himself, and at the same time sensitive pastor, with the contrasts of the prophet inserted in a time of great changes, who clearly indicates the path to follow without looking back?
Each of us remembers the defects and values of our parish priest, being however well aware that Don Franco never compromised and always worked with stubborn tenacity for all the years he could, without sparing himself..