Mattia Rossi wins Don Giovanni Berlingieri 2026 scholarship in Lauropoli

Deacon Mattia Rossi, a native of Paola born in Praia a Mare in 2001, received the 2026 Don Giovanni Berlingieri scholarship during a ceremony at the Church of the Presentation of the Lord in Lauropoli, Calabria. The award, granted by the Fondazione Don Giovanni Berlingieri in partnership with the Istituto Teologico Calabro of Catanzaro, recognises his thesis titled “The useless form of God: the ‘scarto’ as locus of theological aesthetics.”

The judging panel comprised professors Giovanni Amendola, Giuseppe Fazio and Alex Talarico. Present at the ceremony were parish priest Don Alessio De Stefano, professor Franco Stoppa, Don Vincenzo Lopassio, the brother of Don Giovanni Berlingieri, Mimmo, as well as family and friends. Rossi is currently completing a Licenza in Sacra Scrittura at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.