Benedict XVI. Cooperator of the truthThose attending the funeral of Benedict XVIWhat ecology owes Pope Benedict XVIThe first time I heard about the Italian actor Lino Banfi was from Banfi himself, live on air, when he addressed Benedict XVI at the 2006 World Meeting of Families in Valencia and told him that he was "the grandfather of Italy," and Pope Benedict "the grandfather of the world."
There are at least two meetings of the Italian actor Lino Banfi with Benedict XVI; one as Pope in Valencia, and another as Pope Emeritus in 2016. And there is also a record of an audience with Pope Francis on March 2, 2022.
It was July 2006 in Valencia, maybe some of you remember. The sun was shining brightly. Valencia and many Spanish families poured their hearts out to Benedict XVI, to "the grandfather of the world", as the actor Lino Banfi, who was also known as "the grandfather of Italy", affectionately called him. Banfi was then 69 years old, maybe 70, and his name is actually Pasquale Zagaria.
The successor of St. John Paul II, who until 2005 had been his staunch supporter, was unpacking central ideas on marriage and the family, which have become the patrimony of humanity.
"The family is a necessary good for peoples, an indispensable foundation for society and a great treasure for spouses throughout their lives," said Benedict XVI. "It is an irreplaceable good for children, who must be the fruit of love, of the total and generous self-giving of parents. Proclaiming the integral truth of the family, founded on marriage as the domestic Church and sanctuary of life, is a great responsibility for everyone. I therefore invite governments and legislators to reflect on the evident good that peaceful and harmonious homes ensure for man, for the family, the nerve center of society, as the Holy See recalls in the Charter of the Rights of the Family".
Later, in the same festive and testimonial meeting, the then Pope Benedict XVI referred directly to grandparents, like Lino Banfi: "I wish to refer now to grandparents, who are so important in families. They can be, and so often are, the guarantors of the affection and tenderness that every human being needs to give and receive. They give the little ones the perspective of time, they are the memory and richness of families. Let us hope that, under no circumstances, they are excluded from the family circle. They are a treasure that we cannot take away from the new generations, especially when they give testimony of faith in the face of the approaching death".
Years later, in 2013
A few years later, in October 2013, months after his resignation, they met again, this time in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery. After a meeting of about 35 minutes, Lino Banfi said that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI "plays the piano, reads, studies and prays" and is "very well," he recalled on RT radio, according to Europa Press.
The Italian actor stressed that he had found the Pope Emeritus "very serene" and recalled his participation in the World Meeting of Families in Valencia, when he spoke in a "Spanish-Pugliese" and called Benedict XVI "grandfather of the world", who in Valencia was 79 years old, ten years older than Lino Banfi.
In 2022, with Lolo Kiko
On March 2 last year, before the general audience, Pope Francis had a meeting with the Italian actor Lino Banfi, the "grandfather of Italy". The Press Office of the Holy See shared the testimony of Banfi, who asked the Holy Father for "a prayer for peace in Ukraine and another for my wife Lucia, because yesterday we celebrated 60 years of marriage".
"The Pope and I are the same age, we were born in 1936: I reminded him of that, pointing out that I am five months older," the comedian commented. "I find it extraordinary that he chose to give a catechesis on old age, which is not the age of 'discarding'... on the contrary! I am pleased to be called 'grandfather of Italy', and I told the Pope that he really is the 'grandfather of the world', because the elderly are fundamental for the future... more and more!".
But, "precisely because I am old," Banfi continued, "I confided to the Pope that I never thought I would see another war in Europe, and that I feel close to the suffering people, like a grandfather, praying for peace."
A few years before the pandemic, in the midst of the Synod of Bishops on young people, faith and vocational discernment, Pope Francis had a meeting in which he advised grandparents on how to pass on the faith to their grandchildren. He recalled "a very beautiful memory. When I was in the Philippines, people greeted me calling me: Lolo Kiko! Grandfather Francesco! Lolo Kiko, they were shouting! I was very happy to see that they felt close to me as a grandfather," the Pope said.
How to have a wise grandfather at home'.
In a report by Omnes In recent years, when journalists have asked Pope Francis about his relationship with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, he has said: "it's like having a brotherly relationship, really"; "I feel like having a wise grandfather at home"; "it does me good to listen to him"; "he also encourages me a lot". "Like having the wise grandfather at home," Francis repeated at the meeting with the elderly in September 2014.
