Clemente Emilio Riva (1922 – 1999)

by Domenico Mariani1 (Translated by J.Anthony Dewhirst)

Clemente Emilio Riva was born at dawn on the 5 June 1922 at Medolago (BG) — a village 4 kilometres from Sotto il Monte and 18 kilometres from Bergamo. His parents were Giuseppe and Angela Ferrari. He was the second born in a family of nine children. (His two sisters, Rina and Adelina, are still living). He was baptised the same evening in the parochial church of S. Maria Assunta by the parish priest Don Santo Bonomi, and he would be confirmed in this church, at the age of 14, by Bishop Adriano Bernareggi on 27 May 1936. The family was a poor one and lived by the work of their father, Giuseppe, who was a farmer and share-cropper, (he died at the age of 72 on 21 June 1960), and through the good domestic administration of their mother, (who died at the age of 64 on 5 March, 1961). Clemente would always vividly remember his parents with gratitude, admiration and affection. Young Riva went to the country elementary school and occasionally helped on the farm, but he soon showed a desire to become a priest. This vocation would become clearer when he heard that his cousin had entered the seminary. He was now twelve years old. So in June 1935, after a brief preparation with the curate Don Luigi Rizzoli, he presented himself at the diocesan seminary in order to take the entrance exam to the primary grammar school, which he failed. This is the reason, as well as financial difficulty, why the Riva family turned to the Rosminians who had a small seminary at Pusiano. This failure was often recalled by Monsignor Riva and he reminded the authorities of the seminary of Bergamo after he had become Bishop. He was accepted among the aspirants at Pusiano on 29 September 1935. He and his father presented themselves before the Rector, Don Pio Bolla. He would spend four years of study and prayer at Pusiano,with excellent teachers and educators. On 15 July 1939 he arrived at Calvario di Domossola to begin his novitiate. Sixteen companions entered with him. The Master of Novices was Father Carlo Pagani from Milan. A novice’s life, especially in those days, was one of total retirement, contemplation and work. But Riva began to keep a diary in which he wrote about events which especially made an impression on him (ecclesiastical and political); for example the death of Don Orione (19 March 1940), the entrance of Italy into the war (30 June 1940), the first Masses of some of his brethren (30 June 1940), and receiving the cassock (8 September 1940). On 14 June 1941 after a severe dressing down by Father Socius, he wrote: ‘Saints are made with the chisel, not with the brush’, a remark which tells of his determination in offering his life to God. On 1 July 1941, the feast of the Most Precious Blood and the anniversary of the death of his Founder, he took his first vows at the hands of the provincial, Father Giovanni Pusineri. In August he and five others left for Rovereto where the Rector, Don Luigi Sala was waiting for them. Riva immediately took his exams for entrance into the second class of the town’s Teacher’s Training College. He spent three years there and, on 15 June 1944, obtained a very good teacher’s qualification. On 10 September 1944 he took his final vows at Calvario at the hands of the Father General and noted that these were hard times. There was little to eat, cities were

1 bombed, his brother Angelo had been called to the front, travelling was hazardous and full of dangers. With the fall of Fascism, the Rosminians were seen in a bad light; their General, Father Bozzetti, was arrested and imprisoned (4 November–22 December 1944). Riva noted everything, he suffered, prayed and co-operated. He spent the scholastic year 1944–1945 at Collegio Rosmini, Stresa, as an elementary teacher. It was here that he began to read the works of Rosmini at first hand and — following the suggestion of Father Bozzetti — he perused Gli Universali (in eleven volumes) by Pietro Maria Ferrè, Bishop of Casale Monferrato. At the end of September 1945, he departed for Rome where he studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Lateran University (then PUL). And he had the good fortune to enjoy, at home, the teaching of the Rector, Father Hugh Honan, an astute philosopher, and Father Giuseppe Bozzetti, who soon recognised Riva’s fine intellectual ability and made him his pupil. Apart from the lectures of Father Bozzetti at the Università statale della Sapienza, Riva attended conferences in various cultural centres and involved himself in social and political interests. He would read newspapers and reviews, ecclesiastical or otherwise, and acquired an encyclopaedic knowledge — especially Rosminian — of the Capital. These were precious years of an all-round education. He achieved his doctorate in theology on 21 June 1951 at the Pontifical Lateran University. On 24 March 1953 he was ordained priest by Monsignor E. Tonna, in the church of Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore in the Piazza Navona. On this solemn occasion he noted: ‘I feel more afraid and anxious than enthusiastic and joyful’. In September he was made Prefect of Scholastics at Porta Latina. He continued the study of theology, participated in conferences and came ever closer to the young people of Fuci2 to whom he was appointed assistant chaplain. 20 May 1953 was an important day for Don Riva. He defended his doctoral thesis on, Il problema dell’origine dell’anima intellettiva secondo A.Rosmini3 in the presence of Father General, Fr Hugh Honan, his brethren, priests and friends. The thesis was a daring and sensitive one, because it implied that the genuine interpretation of Rosmini’s thought was not correctly expressed in propositions 20, 21, 22, 24 condemned by the Holy Office in 1888. But Riva defended the orthodoxy of his Founder well, and put forward a convincing historical, doctrinal and critical argument. He earned the applause of all the examiners, and the maximum number of votes, together with the right to have his work printed. Father Bozzetti died, almost suddenly, on 27 May 1956 and Don Riva felt the lack of a loving father and great supporter. In fact, in September 1957, in spite of the numerous tasks which Riva had taken on in Fuci, the new Father General decreed him to Calvario di Domodossola, as Prefect of Scholastics and teacher of dogmatic theology. For three years there he devoted himself to zealous youth groups and conferences in north Italy: Stresa, Verbania, Novara, Milano, Rovereto, Bolzano, Venezia and elsewhere. On 12 September 1959 he was appointed ecclesiastical consultor to the Catholic Jurists and central vice-chaplain of the Graduate Movement of Catholic Action. On the 9 September 1960 he returned finally to Rome, first as confessor to San Carlo al Corso and then in 1966 as Rector of the Basilica. On 27 July 1963 he took his vows of spiritual coadjutor at the hands of Father General, which, according to the Constitutions of Father Rosmini, binds us definitively to the Institute and frees us from any ambition, by the promise ‘not to seek, any dignity or office, whether within the Institute or outside it’.4 On 18 September 1963 on the recommencement of the work of Vatican II, the director of

2 catholic journalists asked Don Riva to take on the job of Consultor to the Italian Catholic Press at the Council. So Don Riva began to write articles on the work of the Council. These would be collected later into four volumes published by Morcelliana. In September 1964 he was made ecclesiastical advisor to the Italian Embassy to the Holy See, and in October he began this work meticulously and competently. Father General also wished to avail himself of his help and on 20 February 1967 he asked him to take his Presbyter Vows in the Institute. (This is the fourth vow ‘of special obedience to the Sovereign Pontiff regarding missions together with the promise ‘to be watchful that there is no relaxation over the poverty which the Rule of Life prescribes’.5 He made him his Assistant, and, on 7 October 1971, his Vicar of Intellectual Charity. Meanwhile Don Riva, with his pastoral charity, involved himself more and more in the nerve centre of the Diocese of Rome, (in February 1970 he was a member of the Priests’ Council of the City), and in the awareness of the socio-religious situation of the Capital, which has its positive activities but also its evil ones. Alongside Cardinal Ugo Poletti, Vicar of the Pope for the diocese, his auxiliary Bishops, parish priests and the more qualified lay people Don Riva prepared the famous diocesan meeting on the Responsibilities of Christians faced with the expectations of Justice and Charity of the City of Rome which was held at the Lateran in February 1974. It is a thorough and sincere examination of the conscience of the local church. It is a blunt condemnation of the evils which paralyse it and an honest self examination what each — both as an individual and as a member of a group, and of social activities — can do to get rid of the evils and improve the situation; and finally to sow the seeds of conversion with a view to reversing these trends. The meeting was well covered in the newspapers and the media. The contribution of Don Riva (22 pages) was much appreciated and was published not only in the diocesan Review and in Regno, but in many other pastoral magazines, and it became a book printed by Edizioni Leoniane (1975). By this time Don Riva was among the most notable persons in the city, and it was not surprising when Cardinal Poletti suggested him to the Pope as a possible auxiliary bishop. The decree of appointment was made on 21 April 1975, it was officially published on 24 May and the consecration took place on 22 June 1975 in the Basilica of Santi Ambrogio e Carlo, (where fifty years previously another priest from Bergamo, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, had been consecrated bishop), in the presence of his joyful brethren, relations, friends and fellow villagers. Cardinal Poletti consecrated him and his lofty words betrayed affection and emotion. On the following 15 August he was at Medolago, with his fellow villagers, who welcomed him in the church, where he had been baptised and received the first sacraments, and where the funeral of his parents had taken place — a place of so many treasured memories. But to relax and get a bit of rest he left on 17 August for Mascenika Draga, a village of Croatia on the sea coast where no one knew him and where he would return each year in August with his sisters, the parish priest, the syndic and a few friends to enjoy the rights of a free man, (except for one day when he was recognised by a child who had seen him mentioned on television). On his return to Rome on 1 September, he began his pastoral work in the southern sector of the city, which had been assigned to him. It was a work of being present, of listening, of understanding, of encouragement, of counsel, of instruction, of accompanying, of dedication, of suffering, of tangible love. It would take too long to describe all the tasks and burdens that the new pastor took on, watching over his flock and guiding it for about 23 years ‘to the rich pastures’ of divine grace. It is not even possible to loiter on the more important initiatives. I will mention instead the extra

3 labours over and above his routine work. For example the attempt (which failed, but with a friendship which always endured) to reconcile under obedience the ex abbot of San Paolo, Don Giovanni Franzoni; the church meetings of the Italian church at Loreto (1985), and at Palermo (1995); his participation in the ‘Forum’ of catholic lay organisations in different cities in North Europe (annually from 1976 to 199l); his teaching at the Lateran University (from 1978–1998); the national assemblies of French bishops at Lourdes, where he represented the Italian bishops from 1980 to 1996. In 1983 he began his association with the head Rabbi of the Rome Synagogue, professor Elio Toaff, and with other representatives of the Jewish world for greater understanding between Christians and Jews. This was painstaking and sensitive work which would become ever more unremitting and would become a true friendship. He would figure largely in the visit of the Pope to the Rome Synagogue on13 April 1986, in frequent common prayers, in the publication of articles and in television interviews in support of his ‘elder brethren’, in the planting of ten trees in the forest of Nazareth, dedicated to John XXIII in the name of Monsignor Clemente Riva, in the Rabbi’s emotional visit to the coffin of his dead brother in the funeral chamber at the Pius XI Clinic. But Monsignor Riva enjoyed close ties with, and enjoyed, the mutual esteem of other churches. He was often in the Waldensian church and theological faculty, (Signora Sbaffi-Girardet, Ricca), with the Baptists (Williams, Bertalot), the Lutherans (Filippi), the Methodists, the Episcopalians, the Evangelists generally; always treating them with great understanding and sincere friendship. In 1978 he took on the Presidency of the Diocesan Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-religious Dialogue. In 1984 he became a member of the Pontifical Council for the Unity of Christians (until 1991) and in CEI6 later Secretariat of the Commission for the Family, and in 1985 he became the Secretary of the Commission for Ecumenism and Dialogue. He also found time to preach a course of Spiritual Exercises to the missionaries of the Consolata at Sagana, in Kenya (100 km from Nairobi) from 15–21 July 1989. And he would stay till the end of the month, in Africa — the guest of the Fathers — visiting places, noting customs and writing many wise comments on the civilisation of those deeply religious peoples. The ‘Fifth Ecumenical European Symposium’ was held from 12–19 November 1991 at Santiago de Compostella on the theme ‘Mission and Evangelisation in Europe Today’. This was his particular field and he was asked to speak on behalf of the Italian bishops. From 28 November–14 December 1991 the special Synod of European Bishops was held in the Vatican in the presence of the Holy Father and Monsignor Riva was elected from the five Italian Bishops participating to deal with ecumenism and the relation of the European church with the Jews. On 16 July 1992 he left for Brazil (San Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Bahia), where he took part in a week of meetings with Italian Missionaries on the pastoral situation of the two countries and on ecclesiology in America and Europe. He returned to Italy on 30 July with a wider vision of church problems and with a great admiration for the pastoral work of our compatriots in those pioneering lands of the Gospel. From 12–17 September he was still abroad, this time at Louvain-Brussels for an international meeting on, ‘Europe, Religions and Peace’. There he gave a report on, ‘The Christians and the Jews’. On 3 October 1992 he opened the pastoral Synod in Rome in preparation for the city’s mission. He participated in the solemn opening in San Giovanni in Laterano in the presence of the Pope, in the principal sessions and in the work of the ‘minor groups’.

4 On 21 June 1995 he was present at the opening of the great Mosque of Rome, acting on behalf of Cardinal Ruini and of the Church in Rome. Not all Christians took part or were included. From 4–13 October 1995 he was in the Holy Land. He noted down meticulously, and with care, all the places which he visited and which recalled the bible: Nazareth, Tabor, Mount Carmel, Tiberius, Cana of Galilee,t he Mount of the Beatitudes, Capernaum, Jericho, Jerusalem, Mount Sion, the Mount of Olives, Bethlehem, Bethany, Bethphage, Qumran, Mount Sinai, St Catherine’s, the fortress of Masada, the desert of the Negeb, Jaffa, Tel Aviv. On 29 March 1996 he wrote, ‘I have been working for ten years to promote, even in Italy, an ‘Ecumenical Council of Italian Churches’ at the highest level. There has been agreement and opposition and nothing has been effected’. But ‘the agreement with the Waldensians and Methodists on mixed marriages’ which the CEI signed on 8 May 1996 was, pastorally speaking, a personal success. On 5 May 1997 he wrote to the Pope ‘in order to place at his disposal his office as auxiliary Bishop of Rome in accordance with canon 401 §1 of the Code of Canon Law’, as he was 75 years old on 5 June. But, at the request of Cardinal Ruini, his resignation was postponed for a year. The ‘changing of the guard’ would occur on 3 July 1998. Monsignor Riva retired and Monsignor Rino Fisichella took his place in the southern sector of Rome. On the 8 September 1998 he accepted a scholastic task, that of giving lectures in Theology to LUMSA7and he also participated in the Conference of UGCI8on the fiftieth year of their foundation. (This was the fortieth in his advisory capacity). But he felt he was running out of energy. During the night of 7–8 March 1999 he felt ill and recuperated in the Roman clinic of Pius XI where he was looked after day and night by his brethren and the sisters, until the morning of 30th when — in the presence of his sister Rina — he died suddenly at 11 o’clock. The illness which ended his life was a cerebral haemorrhage, but already on 31 October 1990 he suffered from prostate problems and, later spinal troubles. He looked after himself, placing himself under the best specialists, but he also accepted the illness, offering his suffering in silence, both so that he could continue his work and not feel sorry for himself. The funeral was celebrated the next day at San Carlo al Corso by Cardinal Camillo Ruini.9The pastoral work, which Monsignor Riva expeditiously fulfilled, is immense; administering the sacraments, preaching, meetings of every kind (from youth to jurists), councils, cultural conventions, university lectures, interviews. This work was carried out in Rome, but also — as we have seen — in Lazio, in Italy, in Europe, and in other continents. The Pauline text comes to mind, ‘Charitas Christi urget nos’ (2 Cor 5: 14) where the urgency — as is natural today — enjoys the use of machines, trains, motorboats, aeroplanes, mass media and e-mails for the spreading of messages and ideas. The thought of Monsignor Riva was derived from his Rosminian upbringing, and his initial philosophical interest shifted ever more towards a theological, social and pastoral interest. But his Rosminian basis for all this was always very obvious. I would say that the focal point to which he often returned, and the deep conviction which underlay all his pastoral activity, were the centrality of the human person and the kingdom of God, given bodily form in the Church of Christ. It is these two beliefs which explain his interest for the individual and for the Christian community (both ecclesiastical and civil), his ecumenical zeal for the Jews and for other non Catholic Churches and his respect for every form of religion. In his audience with the Rosminian chapter members on 26 September 1998 the Pope called him ‘an ecumenical bishop’, and the words of the Pope are demonstrated by his writings, his

5 interviews in Radio and Television, by his meetings, and by his continual efforts to unite his brethren who believe in the one God. We can see, then, that the devotion and gratitude that Monsignor Riva owed to Rosmini was immense. He showed this in his published works10, in his style of life, in his confessed belonging to the Institute of Charity, in his participation in the Commission of study, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1973 – 1976) desired by Paul VI in order to assess the orthodoxy of Rosmini, in the psychological pressure which. he unremittingly exerted to achieve the opening of the Cause of Father Founder with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. One can say that — contrary to all tradition — the nihil obstat for the Cause of Rosmini appeared unexpectedly from this Congregation on 19 February 1994, and this fact still holds. But we know also that in all the meetings which Monsignor Riva had with the Holy Father by reason of his office he made some mention of Rosmini, and that on 11 January 1989 — at the request of the Pope — he gave the Pope ‘papers’ on the vicissitudes of Rosmini, of which the ‘Declaratio’ of 19 February 1994 of the Congregation of the Saints was simply a reply. Cultivating good friendships is part of ‘Rosminian universal charity’, and Monsignor Riva had many friends and contacts with men of culture — F.Cossiga, G. Pompei, B. Bottai, V. Bachelet, G. De Rita, S. Cotta, P. Prini, F.Marcadante, M.A. Raschini, P.P. Ottonello, Casavola, Pietrobelli, Capuano, Basilico, Vacca, and many others; — but he did not scorn friendly relationships with ordinary priests, sisters, young people, humble people of every type. And he never disowned his Bergamo upbringing. On 14 December 1989 he participated in the celebration of the 450 anniversary of the foundation in Rome of the Archfraternity of people from Bergamo. On 3 June 1993 he was the leader of 3000 people from Bergamo in their pontifical audience on 30 anniversary of the death of Pope John XXIII. On 13 March 1995 he celebrated the 200 years of the Carrara Academy of Bergamo. But it is above all when he returned to his region among his own people, or shared in the patronal feasts of S. Alessandro, in visiting the Marian sanctuaries of the Bergamo region or in Meetings with the bishops who spoke ‘the incomprehensible native dialect’ that Monsignor Riva relapsed into his own native character and felt himself at home. In conclusion I mention the lucid way in which he prepared for death. On 1 September 1995 he wrote: ‘The thought of death is a salutary one. I do not make any will except that of the will of God. Nothing belongs to me, everything belongs to God and to the Church of God which is in Rome’. On 30 December 1996 he meditated on pages of E.Levinas Dio, la morte e il tempo, which were given him by a friend and confessed that ‘they had done him much good’. 1st January 1997 was the beginning of a new year of grace and he noted, ‘Life goes on. Death ought to be the greatest experience of life but we do not live it with this awareness’. On 17 February 1999, Ash Wednesday, the ancient ‘memento homo’11 made an impression on him. ‘Remember — he wrote — remembering is essential’. On 30 March following he was already in the light of God: he came to the end of his days and the gifts received from on high, and came before the Lord in order to render an account of them and receive his reward. He was exactly 76 years, 9 months and 25 days old.

1 Published in Rivista Rosminiana, 2, 1999. Edizioni Rosminiane Sodalitas, pp. 117–126. 2 Federazione Universitaria Cattolica Italiana, (Italian Catholic University Association). 3 The Problem of the Origin of the Intellective Soul according to A. Rosmini. 4 Rule of Life, n. 62. 5 Rule of Life, n. 110.

6 6 Conferenza Episcopale Italiana, (Italian Episcopal Conference). 7 Libera Università Maria Ss.Assunta (Rome). This was a university instituted for Sisters only, but later opened to everyone, and is very much frequented today. 8 Unione Giuristi Cattolici Italiani, (Union of Catholic Italian Jurists). 9 To which the Holy Father sent the following letter: ‘Your Eminence, I unite myself in spirit to the Eucharistic celebration offered for the soul of Monsignor Bishop Clemente Riva who died after a long illness accepted with a profound spirit of intimate adherence to the will of God. I want to express my heartfelt condolences and my sincere share in the mourning of the ecclesial community of Rome, of which he was auxiliary bishop for many years. I remember with gratitude the profound spirituality, animated by the Rosminian charism, the dedication to evangelisation and his generous pastoral devotion, especially in inter-religious dialogue and with the world of culture, which distinguished the episcopal ministry of this departed bishop, and I pray fervently that the Lord will accept him into the eternal joy as a good and faithful servant. With these sentiments I send to you and to all those who share the sorrow of his departure the comfort of the Apostolic Blessing in the light of the supreme certainties of faith. From the Vatican, 30 March 1999. John Paul II’. 10There is an exhaustive list of works and achievements in the Italian article. See Rivista Rosminiana, 2, 1999, Edizioni Rosminiane Sodalitas, p.124–125. 11Remember (man) you are dust and to dust you shall rerturn, (imposition of ashes).

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