Queer Places:
Basilica dei Santi Ambrogio e Carlo, Via del Corso, 437, 00186 Roma RM
Clemente Emilio Riva (Medolago, 5 June 1922 – 30 March 1999) was an Italian Catholic bishop. His name is known for his commitment to dialogue between religions, especially with Judaism.
When he was alive, in silence and confidentiality, he carried out pastoral care with homosexuals, with groups of gay believers.
He demonstrated open-mindedness and practical courage unusual in men of the Church.
The second son of nine children, in 1935 he took the entrance exam for the first gymnasium at the Diocesan Seminary of Bergamo; negative result, he is directed, also for economic reasons, to apply to the Institute of Charity. In 1935 Clemente Riva entered the Aspirantanto of Pusiano of the Rosminian fathers. In 1939 he arrived at the Sacred Mount Calvary of Domodossola, seat of the Rosminian novitiate: here he made his first vows in 1941, his final vows in 1944 , the vows of spiritual Coaudiator in 1963 and subsequently those of priest in 1967. He was ordained a priest in Rome in 1951. In 1951 he was Assistant of the FUCI for the Vicariate of Rome. In 1953 he obtained a degree in theology at the Pontifical Lateran University; the thesis is entitled The problem of the origin of the intellectual soul according to A. Rosmini. In 1966 Riva was Rector of the Basilica of Saints Ambrogio and Carlo on Corso Roma, entrusted to the care of the Rosminian fathers, where he will live until his death. In 1967 Don Clemente Riva made the vows of Priest to the Institute, a special vow with which a confrere solemnly and significantly promised obedience to the Supreme Pontiff. In 1971, the then Provost General of the Rosminians, Father Giovanni Gaddo, appointed Riva Vicar General of Intellectual Charity of the Curia of the Institute. In 1975 he received episcopal consecration in the basilica of Santi Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso through the laying on of hands of Cardinal Ugo Poletti, the Pope's vicar general for the city of Rome, assisted by Giovanni Canestri, titular archbishop of Monterano and vicegerent of Rome, and by Enrico Bartoletti, archbishop emeritus of Lucca, general secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference. He carries out his ministry as auxiliary bishop of Rome for the southern area, titular of Atella. Former president of the Ecumenical Commission of Rome, Riva was a profound connoisseur of the thought of Antonio Rosmini, founding priest of the Istituto della Carità of which he belonged. In 1982 he assumed the Presidency of the Diocesan Commission for ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, in 1984 he became a member of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity (until 1988) and in the CEI, after having been a member (and secretary for two years) of the Commission for the Family (1976-1982), in 1982 he became Secretary of the Commission for ecumenism and dialogue. In 1997, when Riva turned 75, the cardinal vicar for the city of Rome Camillo Ruini asked John Paul II to extend his mandate for a year. In 1998 Msgr. Salvatore Fisichella who would prove to be very important for the cause of beatification of Antonio Rosmini, as Fisichella was among the concelebrants of the beatification of Antonio Rosmini. He died on March 30, 1999. On the occasion of Clemente Riva's death, Pope John Paul II sent Cardinal Ruini a message in which he recalled the Rosminian prelate as a man of profound spirituality and particularly attentive to interreligious dialogue. The Jewish community of Rome also expressed deep condolences: the former chief rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff went to the funeral home to pay him homage. His funeral took place in the Basilica of Santi Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso, officiated by the Cardinal Vicar of the Pope for the city of Rome Camillo Ruini and concelebrated by the auxiliary bishops of the city and by his Rosminian confreres. With a resolution of 27 January 2010, the municipal council of Rome approved the proposal to name in memory of Msgr. Clemente Riva a large green area a few steps from the coast of Ostia, part of the southern sector of Rome of which Riva was the guide as Auxiliary Bishop of the capital.
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