Maurizio Rasero
Maurizio Rasero is the mayor of Asti. In November 2026 he proposed naming the city's railway station after Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the late pontiff whose family roots lie in the Asti area.[1][2]
The proposal to name the station
Rasero wrote formally to the leadership of the FS Italiane Group (Italy's state railway group) asking it to begin the process needed for Asti's railway station to be named «Stazione di Asti – Papa Francesco».[1][2] The initiative followed a meeting with Carla Rabezzana, a cousin of Pope Francis, and was shared with the Bishop of Asti, Monsignor Marco Prastaro.[1][2] In the letter, the mayor asked the relevant bodies to consider and begin, within their respective powers, the process for the naming, and offered the City Council's willingness to cooperate with the parties involved on institutional, technical and administrative matters.[1]
Rasero explained the proposal by pointing to Pope Francis's ties to his family's native land, a bond that found a significant moment in the pontiff's visit to Asti on 19 and 20 November 2022, when Bergoglio met the local community and, at the end of the Eucharistic celebration in Asti Cathedral, addressed the faithful with a greeting in Piedmontese dialect: "A la fame propri piasì encuntreve!" ("It really is a pleasure to meet you!").[1][2]
According to the mayor, "Pope Francis was an extraordinary figure, not only for the Catholic world but for the entire international community," and naming the station after him would be "a gesture of gratitude from our city towards a pontiff who was able to speak to the whole world without ever forgetting his own origins."[1] Rasero stressed that the station is one of the city's main access points, a place of daily passage for residents, workers, students and visitors, and that the new name would offer a tangible sign of the area's history and identity to those arriving in and leaving Asti.[1][2]
Related articles: Proposal by the mayor of Asti to name the railway station after Pope Francis (November 2026)
Sources
- ATnews — 3 November 2026
- la Repubblica Torino — 3 November 2026