After months of controversy in Italy, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Clergy confirmed last week the removal of Fr. Massimo Biancalani, well-known for his pro-migrant activism, as pastor of two parishes in the Diocese of Pistoia.
The move comes after protracted public debate over the priest’s efforts to provide shelter to migrants in the parishes to which he was assigned.
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Biancalani became famous in Italy in 2016 for hosting hundreds of migrants in his parish churches, with many of them sleeping in the church pews.
After years of protests from the neighbors and attempts at mediation from the Diocese of Pistoia, public authorities eventually shutt down the parish buildings, citing security and hygiene issues.
In September 2025, Biancalani’s bishops ordered him to leave his parishes and take a position in the diocesan missionary apostolate, where he would continue to work with migrants.
But the priest refused.
In a September 2025 statement, the Diocese of Pistoia said that it had received “a formal refusal from the priest.
“The bishop, deeming the reasons given for the refusal insufficient, has reiterated his invitation to take up the new position, in a gesture intended to further demonstrate his trust in the priest in question,” the diocese said.
But Biancalari again filed an appeal to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Clergy, charging that his removal from the parishes was in violation of canon law.
That appeal has now been rejected, with the dicastery confirming his removal.
According to Il Fatto Quotidiano, which claimed to have had access to the dicastery’s decision, the decree charged that Biancalari had been negligent in his pastoral ministry to parishioners.
The Code of Canon Law establishes that “grave neglect or violation of parochial duties which persists after a warning” can be the grounds for removing a pastor from office.
The dicastery repeatedly determined that Biancali had failed “to care for the souls of the parishes to the point of total destruction of community life” and had “transformed the church of Vicofaro into a dormitory without authorization.”
The decree also spoke of “serious negligence in the exercise of parish ministry… due to the lack of catechesis and other pastoral activities” and of “an irreconcilable conflict due to the seriously harmful and disruptive conduct within the ecclesial community, and due to the unauthorized transformation of the two parishes into illegal and dilapidated reception centers.”
Biancalani blamed the parish’s “decline in community life” on families which ceased coming to the parish because of the presence of migrants, according to Il Giornale.
The priest has not stated whether he intends to appeal the dicastery’s decision. But Biancalani seemed to blame ecclesiastical and secular politics for the situation.
The priest told Il Fatto Quotidiano that the decision was “a drastic, harsh punishment. While there have always been problems in Vicofaro, here in Ramini, the climate was calm… Our approach to welcoming was not a whim of mine but a response to the guidance of the Magisterium of the Church, led by Pope Francis, who knew [of our work]. It’s unclear to what extent the government, the local Church, and ecclesiastical dynamics influenced this decision.”
Biancalani added that Bishop Augusto Mascagna allowed him to continue working as an associate priest in the Ramini parish where he also hosts around 50 migrants.
A day after his removal was confirmed, Biancalani posted an image on social media of Michelangelo’s Pietà with Mary holding a migrant in her arms instead of Jesus Christ.
In an Aug. 22 interview, Biancalani said that his bishop’s statement saying that the parish needed a fresh start was “a bit hypocritical. I even asked them to wait and think about the situation. The truth must be told: the Church, including Caritas, left me alone.”
“Yet I can’t stop loving it. The Church is greater than its errors and contradictions. And I obey the will of the Church; even if they moved me [to a different post], I wouldn’t resist,” he added in the interview.
Since Biancalari’s appointment to Vicofaro in 2016, he had dedicated himself to receiving migrants from all over the world in the parish, at some point hosting as many as 200 people within the church. Biancalari’s activism led to security and sanitation concerns, protests from the residents, and the desertion of parishioners.
Biancalari was also well-known for his social media presence, where he posts almost daily about his humanitarian activities and criticized church authorities.
In an Aug. 1 post, a day after 80, 000 migrants crossed the border between Morocco and Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in Northern Africa, Biancalari posted a picture of migrants crossing the border with a caption saying “Thank you, guys, for coming to set us free. Thank you for coming to tear down the cages that shut us in — in selfishness, in inhumanity, in injustice, in hypocrisy. But be careful… be careful. I love you all, I love Morocco.”
In August 2025, Bishop Fausto Tardelli removed Biancalani as pastor of Vicofaro and weeks later as pastor of Ramini, a month after riot police evicted a group of migrants from Vicofaro’s parish over complaints of poor sanitary conditions and safety issues allegedly caused by the migrants hosted in the rectory.
In June 2025, the diocese was notified by the municipal government that the parish premise had to be vacated entirely over safety and health reasons.
The local government’s decision came after several security issues involving the migrants hosted in the parish. Between 2023 and 2024, several migrants hosted in the parish were arrested on charges of rape, drug dealing, and armed robbery. In January this year, a knife fight broke out between two migrants that lived in the parish, leading local authorities to start relocating migrants to other centers in February with the help of Caritas.
However, a dozen of migrants, according to Biancalari himself, with mental health issues or drug problems, refused to leave the parish, leading to the July operation to evict the remaining migrants and close down the parish temporarily.
A diocesan statement at the time said that “the diocese, as it has done in recent months and on every occasion it has been called upon, assures that the guests of Vicofaro will be rehoused as quickly as possible.”
“This is because, beyond the ordinance’s provisions, there is a clear awareness of the need to move beyond this emergency hospitality model, which offers shelter to an exorbitant number of people, inevitably leaving them in seriously precarious and even dangerous housing conditions, first and foremost for themselves and then for the good of all,” the statement added.
The diocese clarified that the parish’s closure was only temporary and that it would “undergo a… comprehensive renovation project. They will reopen immediately thereafter, to continue to provide shelter for an adequate number of people, offering them an environment compliant with health and safety regulations and also safeguarding the spaces—beyond the church—for the parish’s pastoral activities.”
Biancalani posted a statement on social media responding to the diocesan statement, saying that “as has been acknowledged more than once, we are aware of the problems that exist, but these must be resolved not by closing Vicofaro but by extending this experience of reception. In that way, with the experience spread across other provinces in smaller numbers, Vicofaro could continue to operate under less pressure and in greater safety.
“Vicofaro has tried to put into practice, with few resources at its disposal, an explicit call of the Church’s Magisterium: to rescue, to care for, to form, to integrate. We have had the grace of meeting thousands of people over these years. Many of these young men are working today, they have “settled,” they are part of our great family,” Biancalani’s statement said.
At the time, Biancaloni and some of the volunteers said they were not opposed to relocating the migrants, acknowledging the sanitary and overcrowding issues, but objected to the temporary closure of the parish.