Rome (NEV), May 6, 2017 – On May 1st, at the age of 86, pastor Franco Becchino has died. He was president of the Tribunal of Savona, both penal and civil judge, local pastor in the Methodist church of Savona. He was one of the greatest point of reference, among the active generation after the Second World War, for both the Methodist and the Waldensian churches. He held different positions within the church: several times member of the Permanent Committee of the Work for the Methodist Evangelical Churches in Italy (OPCEMI), member and vice-moderator of the Waldensian Board, member of the Commission for the relations with the Italian State, member of the Regulations Commission. Among other things, he wrote for the Publishing House La Claudiana “The Churches and the State in a changing Italy. The role of Protestantism” (1998) in collaboration with Sergio Aquilante, Giorgio Bouchard, Giorgio Tourn. For the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, he wrote “The freedom of the others” (1998). He also wrote the entry “Protestant Churches” for the UTET edition of the Italian Digest.
