The news of Franco’s death seemed to take some time to filter through to this country. It was a shock to learn that my dear friend had gone to be with the Lord (on December 20 2006) after a long struggle with cancer.
Born on July 7 1936, raised in a Roman Catholic family in his beloved Italy, Franco trained for the priesthood and served as a Roman Catholic priest for some years. One day when officiating at the Mass, a passage from Hebrews 10 was being read:
‘Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.’
