In the monastery of the Santissima Annunziata of the cloistered Dominicans of Marradi (Florence), four nuns remained, three of whom were a very elderly and a novice, all however intending not to leave their home. With them a part of the inhabitants of Marradi, including Paolo Bassetti, former mayor, and also cousin of the president of the CEI (Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti), among the people who yesterday came to the convent "to avoid a forced removal of the religious".
It has indeed happened, as some sites report and Basetti confirms, that after an attempt last December, yesterday, at the convent, three, including two nuns, presented themselves without any warning, with the aim of convincing the nuns to leave the convent. The nuns did not open to anyone and some of the inhabitants they warned went to support them, if needed.
"For some time - Bassetti explains that yesterday he arrived at the convent when the three visitors had already left - we have been working to avoid that the nuns have to leave the monastery as their order from Rome would like. To this end, we were also able to aggregate it to the Dominican monastery of Castel Bolognese, in the province of Ravenna, but that affiliation, granted in December 2018, was then revoked on May 21st without ever being effective ". "If they were to return to office again, they would not look great - Bassetti always explains -. But then, what boredom do our nuns do? They keep themselves, with their pensions and ask for nothing, they manage to concelebrate the mass and they are always available. We want them to remain in the convent which, among other things, belongs to us: it was the local families who built it 400 years ago. And in any case, there is a need to find a shared solution "