News from the Rimini Meeting Where We Saw How History Changes When the Other Is Perceived As “A Good for Me.” CONTENTS September, 2016 Vol.18 - No

COMMUNION AND LIBERATION INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE 2016 8

VOL.TRACES 18 LITTERAE COMMUNIONIS

AT THE HEART OF THE ENCOUNTER News from the Rimini Meeting where we saw how history changes when the other is perceived as “a good for me.” CONTENTS September, 2016 Vol.18 - No. 8 Communion and Liberation International Magazine - Vol. 18

Editorial Office: Via Porpora, 127 - 20131 Milano Tel. ++39(02)28174400 Fax ++39(02)28174401 CLOSE UP E-mail: [email protected] Internet:www.tracesonline.org

Editor (direttore responsabile): Davide Perillo THE GOLD NUGGET Vice-editor: Paola Bergamini Editorial Assistant: Anna Leonardi AND THE SOURCE From New York, NY: Holly Peterson

Graphic Design: G&C, Milano We offer here a summary of the Meeting of Rimini, Davide Cestari, Lucia Crimi and the powerful yet simple people we met there Photo: Archivio Meeting: Cover, 6/15; who are building history with their lives. GettyImages: 16/19, 20-21, 22

Publishers (editore): Società Coop. Edit. Nuovo Mondo Via Porpora, 127 - 20131 Milano Reg. Tribunale di Milano n°. 740 - 28 ottobre 1998 Iscrizione nel Registro degli Editorial A Human Sympathy 1 Operatori di Comunicazione n. 6.147

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD Close up Rimini The Gold Nugget and the Source by A. Stoppa 6 PAGEONE Pope Francis “In the Shoes of the Others” 9 Exhibitions “Today You Made Me Happy” by Luca Fiore 11 “My” Meeting That Bridge is for Me by Wael Farouq 14 THE FORM OF WITNESS Notes from the Synthesis of Julián Carrón to the International Assembly of Leaders of Communion and Liberation. Cervinia, August 29, 2016.

Navarro Arteaga, The Prodigal Son, Shrine of the Virgin of El Rocío. Almonte, Spain. No 8 2016 I Current affairs USA A Precious Gem by Mattia Ferraresi 16

PAGE ONE The Form of Witness. Notes from the synthesis by Julián Carrón to the International Assembly of CL Church Mother Teresa “Who Are You?” by Paola Bergamini 20 leaders. Italy, August 29, 2016.

LUIGI GIUSSANI

This volume is a selection of the most memorable passages from works such as At significant writings by Monsignor Luigi the Origin of the Christian Claim, The Journey Giussani (1922-2005), founder of the Italian to Truth is an Experience, Why the Church?, Catholic lay movement Communion and Generating Traces in the History of the World, Liberation, which is practiced in 80 and Is It Possible to Live This Way? Many speak countries around the world. of Giussani as a friendly presence, a man who believed that it was possible to live in Presented by Julián Carrón, Giussani's faith every day and in any circumstance. As a successor as head of Communion and writer and religious scholar who was deeply Liberation, Christ, God's Companionship with devoted to his work, Giussani’s teachings and Man is the most succinct introduction to the reflections have come to generate worldwide breadth of Giussani’s thought, including recognition and support.

MCGILL-QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY PRESS Pages: 122 - Year: 2015 Year: - 122 Pages: EDITORIAL

A Human Sympathy

eptember has come, and almost without realizing it, we come to a fork in the road. We get back to normal life as we return to work, school, and university. Everyday life starts again. If vaca- tions are “the time of freedom,” as Fr. Giussani reminded us, the moment when, having fewer obligations, we choose how to use our hours, and thus see better what is most important to us, then the return in autumn is a test in its own way, a very revealing one. We can find ourselves already at the mercy of the waves, weary at the idea of facing the routine (the usual colleagues, the same old relationships, the inexorable responsibilities… the “living that knocks your legs out from under you” described by Pavese) or even saddened and burdened when we Sraise our eyes to the bigger and more anguishing situations all around us. Or, it may happen that we find ourselves alive, really wanting to return to that same routine, curious to see what will happen. Happy, in other words, lit up with hope. It is a subtle, almost imperceptible fork in the road, but a real one. It does not depend on what we say or do: it is an attitude from deep down inside, something that we see emerge in the way we face reality, beyond our words or intentions. We stand in front of daily life in the same position from which we face the larger problems: closed or open, folded in upon ourselves or thrown wide open to the new. What makes the difference?

On the Traces website you will find a reflection by Fr. Julián Carrón, the head of CL, in which he synthesiz- es the four days of meetings and dialogues with the leaders of the Movement from throughout the world. We offer it to everyone as an instrument for serious reflection. At a certain point, repeating a sentence said by one of the participants (“the certainty of being loved allows me to embrace reality”), he quotes Fr. Giussani: “The sign of certainty is that one has sympathy with everything that he encounters. In fact, sympathy with all that you encounter is only given by the presence in us of the certainty of our destiny.” A certainty. In the midst of the great insecurity in which we live, the seasickness that seizes us at the idea of having to live daily life in an increasingly difficult context, the thing that restores our gusto and our desire to come to grips with “all that you encounter”–the thing that frees us–is certainty. Not certainty in our own means, projects, abilities, and plans (in the “strength of our tools,” Pope Francis observes in his very beautiful message to the Meeting of Rimini, which you will also find in this issue): we see all too well how inadequate they are for bearing the shock of the impact with things. This certainty instead is “certainty of our destiny,” a continual and ever-deeper rediscovery of what we are: “loved.” This is what enables us to embrace reality.

In this issue of Traces you will find many signs of this dynamic, from the summary of the Meeting of Ri- mini, where “human sympathy” (“the willingness to put ourselves in the shoes of the others to dig below the surface and grasp what troubles their heart,” as the Pope said to the organizers) was evident, to the powerful story of those whose lives have been turned upside down by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. All of these are echoes of what happens when, as the Pope asks, the heart of life becomes “the strong and simple presence of Jesus, His consoling and encouraging mercy,” and nothing else, the echo of what happens a little bit at a time, over the course of years, as we become more certain of Him and of the fact that we are loved. Deep down, this is the purpose of time, even the time that is now starting anew: to become certain of being loved. T

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MEETING 1: DIRTY DISHES the room where the presentation was AND MOTHER TERESA to take place and suddenly I heard Being a dishwasher at Rimini Guido start to recite the Angelus. I 1Meeting with my friends gave him a hug and shared with him Erasmo and Vero gave me the that prayer born so spontaneously. So opportunity to get to know them there we were, the two of us, a guest better and to discover that even the and a hostess, reciting the Angelus a few most boring work can be beautiful. moments before entering the room. I understood this thanks to Mother Right at the moment when the guest Teresa after having seen a video in should appear confident, put together, which she said, “It is not about how and ready for the “performance,” much we do, but about how much in everything I do, this putting oneself Guido had humbly recognized his love we put into doing it. Seeing as to work, having someone in mind. inadequacy, incapability, and sense of we are human beings, it seems a small My desire is to better understand the dizziness while preparing to express thing, but when we surrender to God meaning of this special gift. in words the beauty of the experience what we do, God is infinite and our Tecla, Como (Italy) he lives every day in America. He had small action becomes infinite. We entrusted everything into the hands must find the holiness in our work MEETING 2: THE GUEST WHO of the Madonna. At home, I have that God has entrusted to us, giving RECITES THE ANGELUS the habit of praying the Angelus, but us a ‘special gift’: yes, to each one of Dear Fr. Carrón, this is the had not done so since I had been in us, He has given a special gift. Maybe 1fourth year that I have been a Rimini, where the desire to recite it all I can do is to peel potatoes, but if hostess at the Meeting. The greatest was buried by the thousand things to I peel them in a beautiful way, this is gift of these days came when I was be done during the day. Now, here, my love for God in action.” Perhaps assigned to a guest, Guido, who works Jesus used Guido to allow me to be I can only wash dishes, like I did in in America with the disabled and with happier, carrying out this gesture of those days, but the point is how you wounded war veterans. I was amazed total surrender, which alone is capable do it and who you have in mind. by the familiarity created from our of giving meaning to my days. You are more attentive to everything, first phone exchange: he was grateful Federica, Varese (Italy) so much so that every time I found and amazed to have a hostess, not a dirty dish, I didn’t pretend that I something to be taken for granted. THE SMALL THINGS THAT hadn’t noticed, but I washed it again When we walked together around the BRING THE WALLS DOWN because I thought, “My friends have Fair, and my friends asked if I was his In these days, I have lived the to eat off this plate and I give it to hostess, he answered, “No, she is my 1pleasant feeling of seeing one them dirty?” Having them in mind, friend.” When we met some of my of my walls fall: the poorly hidden I did it more willingly. It’s not that it friends, he stopped and wanted to diffidence that I had always fostered was less tiring, because I did feel like know their names and what they were in regard to religion, which in some resting, but it was more beautiful, in studying, surprising them because way has always been part of my life, fact, we sang, we greeted people and they are used to stepping aside when even if in negativity and absence. I looked at everything more closely. they see me with a guest. But the was born and raised in Albania under Each time someone would come into greatest and unexpected gift came the communist regime, a regime the kitchen, loaded with dishes, you right before the meeting in which he that prohibited religious practice, couldn’t help but go to them and say, was to present. Surrounded by the going so far as to destroy places of “Leave them, I’ll take care of it, you security crew, the hostesses and the worship. Those who were discovered go.” I desire this experience every day, group of presenters, we approached practicing were imprisoned. My

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Email: [email protected] Write to Traces editorial office, Via Porpora 127, 20131 Milan, Italy

EARTHQUAKE

I FELT AGAIN THAT TEARING

was moved by the news and images of the earthquake, surely because I went Ithrough it with my family on that 6th of April in Aquila. I again felt that tearing that hurts, that opens your heart and that asks for a reason. I did not lose anyone from my family: in fact, my daughter, Maria, was saved by a toothache that evening. On April 7th I was bewildered; I was sad for my home, for all of those who had died, but I was also full of the mi- racle of Maria. Today, exactly because of all that happened after the earthquake, I want even more to be there, I want to help those who are hurting; I want to tell them that Jesus loves them. I can perhaps say that I have come to understand one thing from the earthquake at Aquila; nothing is more important than the person, nothing is more important than my “I.” I am moved by the shouts of joy from the police and the others when they save a life, when they are able to pull a little girl or a young boy from the rubble. That shout says everything. All of Italy stopped in front of those images with the wish that other people might be extracted from the rubble alive. I am moved by my cousin who says, “Today we saved only two!” He adds the word “two” with bitterness because he has pulled out so many who didn’t make it. I pray for the people of Amatrice, that they experience in their lives the person of Jesus, His embrace, because I want to give back what I have received. Grazia, L’Aquila (Italy) family was Orthodox Christian and of crisis, I never received even a little future. There were 450 of us; I met so my mother was able to transmit all of help or simply some understanding many people who truly take to heart the Christian values, such as respect that I would have expected. Yet those helping the other and the search for and love for the other, stripped of any people were very religious; every day good. The vacation concluded with a religious connotations and yet, rooted I accompanied them to church. That moment of final sharing, an encounter in me is the memory of her praying in was the moment when something where the most salient moments of silence. As a child, I was curious and in me broke: I had found the most those days were played onstage in approached her, asking her to teach me superficial part of religion. All of this funny and ironic skits. The organizers how to pray, but she always refused. to get to today. I have a dear friend, wanted to involve those who came The mystery increased my fascination Gianna, who is part of the Movement of from different cultures. Each of us was with that prohibited ritual and so I Communion and Liberation. Various asked to translate a phrase from his or stayed to watch her, trying to imitate times she has talked to me about it, her own language and sing it. I heard her gestures, a habit that I lost as I grew. but I always had an attitude of total people singing in my language and I came to Italy a total atheist. The first resistance toward any involvement. we shared a magical moment, almost two years I worked taking care of two She, in response, invited me on a ritual I would say, but a rituality more elderly people. It was a very difficult vacation: four days in Val d’Aosta. The human and universal than relative time; I had a small child and I was often doubts were many, both mine and my to any single religion. I have worked forced to bring him to work with me. Muslim husband’s, but, in the end, we for years in cultural mediation and I I had to be attentive to both my son went. Well, these four days were an believe that it is these small things that and the elderly couple; I was constantly unexpected surprise: they were a light can truly change the world. under pressure and in those moments that has brightened my hope for the Florentina, La Spezia (Italy)

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THE GOLD NUGGET AND THE SOURCE

We offer here a summary of the seven days of the Meeting of Rimini, and the powerful yet simple people we met there who are building history with their lives. In these days they told us about surprising happenings that have penetrated the chaos of the world. by Alessandra Stoppa

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ranciscan Fr. Firas Lutfi is an as- The audience, their hearts aching for of the opposite: “[...] we need, perhaps sistant pastor in Aleppo. In the the victims of the earthquake in Ama- more than ever, the words of the Risen weeks leading up to the Meeting, trice, Italy the night before, had listened Christ, ‘Be not afraid!’ [...] Peoples and the one road that connects the to him in silence and watched the vid- nations of the entire world need to hear city to the rest of the world was eo of his young people singing in the these words. Their conscience needs to Fclosed, but he came anyway, at the risk summer center during the bombings. grow in the certainty that Someone ex- of dying in a mortar attack. He played This silence came up in another talk, ists who holds in His hands the destiny down the danger, with the sense of when writer Luca Doninelli, referring of this passing world [...] this Someone perspective that certain people have. to the title of the Meeting, said, “The is Love, Love that became man, Love Fr. Lufti was one of the 271 speakers silence between me and you; wherein crucified and risen, Love unceasingly who came to Rimini, and on the next- lies the root of that which is good. I am present among men.” to-the-last day of the Meeting, having not the answer to your questions; and This Meeting, with such a “coura- just finished his testimony about how you are not the answer to mine.” geous title,” as Pope Francis called it, his embattled people have been living, Fr. Lufti quoted John Paul II’s words in a whirlwind of 106 meetings, 18 ex- dying, and hoping for the last six years, about courage and hope that encap- hibits, performances, stands, and many he said, “More than the applause, the sulate the value of the entire week in extra events, is this: women and men silence is what made me feel the re- Rimini, in a summer marked by news who bring the unceasing presence of sponsibility we bear.” stories that seemed to speak exclusively a greater design, full of surprises, »

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» one that enables a new start when everything seems lost, featuring people from the past and from our times, from every part of the world, and from very different worlds. This greater design was made man- ifest by Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn and the biblicist Ignacio Carbajosa, who brought in flesh and blood the hope of a new partnership between Jews and Christians. It was seen in the exhibit on migrants, which recounted the unspeakable pain of the refugees at sea, and the impetus of those who NOBODY CAN ESCAPE FROM LOVE. The exhibit on the APAC, the prisons without bars. come to their aid. It emerged in the announcement of the German min- ister Thomas de Maizière that the Therapies. The Meeting during this tive need, politics, world conflicts, and doors will be opened again to those Holy Year dove into the concrete reality everyday conflicts, the question–said who arrive. It became apparent in of mercy that enables people to remain Fr. Antonio Spadaro in his summary the kiss the ex-terrorist Maria Grazia human. Many of these stories appear of the Pope’s challenge to Europe and Grena gave to the daughter of Aldo in this issue, while others will be re- each of us–changes from “Who are Moro, the fruit of a journey together. ported in future issues as well as online. you?” to “What do you hope for?” The It was apparent in Gültan Kisanak, The title “You Are a Good for Me” was question of our identity coincides with the mayor of Diyabarkir, the capital exemplified in countless concrete ways, the hope we have. of the region of Turkey with a Kurd- the first of which was in seeing the faith “I am not Catholic, but one thing ish majority, who, while she was in and faces of people from the Arabic I have learned from Catholics is that Rimini, learned of the most recent part of Africa and from Latin America the issue of hope is fundamental,” said of the numberless attacks on her who have a striking joy and capacity to Luciano Violante who, after various people, and amazed everyone with build in the most difficult situations. appearances at the Meeting, this year her love of freedom. A meeting of “I have nothing but gratitude,” said wanted to contribute to it personally, mayors gave rise to the prospect of the Apostolic Vicar for Northern Ara- and curated the exhibit on the 70th a network on the La Pira model. A bia, Bishop Camillo Ballin, who has year of the Italian Republic and the greater design was evident in these served for 47 years in Muslim coun- great theme of dialogue as articulated particular manifestations, and also tries. He moved those at the Meeting by the President of Italy, Sergio Mat- on an awe-inspiring cosmic scale, as with his testimony and was himself tarella. Violante added, “Not abstract Nobel Prize physicist Laura Cadonati moved to the point of having to stop hope, but operative hope. An action, gave the audience the opportunity to reading, and to ask pardon, when he an example, a word that mobilizes, that hear live the “sound of the universe,” spoke of his faithful. “Their unceasing moves our intelligence.” the cry of two black holes that collid- intercession is our strength.” “Reality therapy.” This is the hope ed 1.3 billion years ago. In the face of personal and collec- that healed Daniel, a Brazilian ex- »

JOSEPH H.H. WEILER, President of the European University Institute

“Italy is a community of destiny. Italians do not all share the same values. There are secular people, Catholics, those on the left and those on the right [...] Why then ‘community of destiny?’ Because regardless of the enormous difference between Italian groups and individuals, one thing is non-negotiable: ‘We will resolve this problem as Italians.’ This is the community of destiny.”

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POPE FRANCIS: PUTTING OURSELVES IN THE SHOES OF THE OTHERS TO GRASP WHAT THEY ARE TRULY LOOKING FOR

The message from the Holy Father for the 37th edition of the Meeting for the Friendship Among Peoples.

he title selected for this year’s Meeting—“You Are a Good the surface and grasp what troubles their hearts and what Tfor Me”—is a courageous one. Indeed, it takes courage they are truly looking for. This is the way to start that dia- to state this when so many aspects of the surrounding world logue, leading us to progress towards new understandings, seem to point in the opposite direction. Often the temptation enriching us all. This is the challenge that lies ahead for all to restrict ourselves to the limited horizon of our personal men of goodwill. interests prevails, so that others become unnecessary or— even worse—an annoyance or a hindrance. Yet, this is not Societal upheavals we are often powerless witnesses to consistent with our nature: as early as childhood we discov- are, in fact, a mysterious invitation to take back the founda- er the beauty of the link between human beings and learn tions of communion between men so as to create a new to meet others by acknowledging and respecting them as beginning. Against this background, what contribution can brothers and interlocutors, as the children of our common we make as Christ’s disciples? Our task coincides with the Father in heaven. To the contrary, individualism establishes a mission God has chosen us for: it is “the proclamation of the distance between people, emphasizes their flaws and limits, Gospel, which today more than ever finds expression in go- and undermines our wish and ability to live together, where ing forth to bind the wounds of humanity with the powerful each of us can be free and happy together with others and yet simple presence of Jesus, and his mercy that consoles be enriched by their diversity. and encourages.” (Pope Francis, Address on the Occasion of the Conferral of the Charlemagne Prize, May 6, 2016). Faced with threats to the peace and securi- This is the hope of the Holy Father, who en- ty of both peoples and nations, we are called courages the Meeting’s participants to pay the upon to acknowledge that our existential inse- utmost attention in bearing their personal cre- curity is what makes us most afraid of others, There is one ative witness, aware of the fact that it is not the as if they were rivals depriving us of our vital word we must strength of our tools that attracts, conquers, space and going beyond the boundaries we and loosens our chains, but rather the tena- have built. Faced with the epochal changes af- endlessly cious gentleness of the merciful love of the Fa- fecting us all, who can reasonably believe that repeat and ther we can all draw from the source of grace one’s strengths alone can redeem oneself? provided by God in the Sacraments, especially Presumptuousness is the very foundation above all put Holy Communion and Penance, which can then of any conflict between men. Following the into practice– be donated in love to our brothers. He urges us example of the Lord Jesus, Christians are al- to carry on with our commitment to be close to ways open toward others, whoever they are, dialogue. others and to do our best to serve them with as they think that nobody is lost forever. The joy, following Father Giussani’s teaching: “The Gospel provides us with an evocative image Christian view reverberates with a momentum of this attitude: the prodigal son pasturing the that makes you able to exalt all the good that swine and his father looking from his terrace every evening is present in all that you meet, a momentum that makes to check if he is coming home and hoping so, despite ev- you acknowledge your participation in that plan that will be erything and everyone. The world would change immensely perfectly realized in eternity and that has been revealed in if this unlimited hope became the lens through which men Christ.” (L. Giussani, S. Alberto, J. Prades, Generating Traces looked at themselves! […] in the History of the World, McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal 2010, p. 116). There is one word we must endlessly repeat and above all put into practice—dialogue. If we do that, we will find out With these feelings, the Holy Father invokes the light that opening ourselves to others does not make us poorer, of the Holy Spirit on your Excellency, the organizers, the but richer instead, as it enables us to understand the truth of participants, and the many volunteers of the Meeting for the others, the importance of their experience and the back- Friendship Among Peoples for a fruitful experience of faith ground of their words, even when they hide behind behav- and fraternal communion. His Holiness asks everybody to iors and choices we disagree with. A real encounter implies pray for his ministry and gives wholeheartedly his Apostolic having a clear identity and at the same time the willingness Blessing. to put ourselves in the shoes of others in order to dig below Pietro Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of State

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» con, after a life that seemed irre- deemable. Barely of legal age, he had already been charged with 27 crimes. But when he ended his testimony in front of the people of the Meeting, saying that for the last eight years he has had an employment card, the audience broke into applause. Pure cheering. Cheering for the humanity of the other person, a stranger until now, cheering for his wounds and weaknesses, for the greatness that moves his heart, and above all for the embrace that he received in a precise place, the Brazil- MIGRANTS. “The Challenge of the ian APAC prisons, without guards and Encouter” was the exhibit on refugees. barbed wire, where prisoners are called by name. “The world would change im- carpet and enthusiastically spoke astery wanted to shine them for him. mensely, if this unlimited hope be- about returning next year to Rimini, “God acts in people’s lives, but came the lens through which men “but as one of the volunteers.” also in the most complex histori- look at themselves!” the Pope stated cal and social processes,” stated Fr. in his message. He spoke of the father Fluid vision. Doninelli said in his talk, Spadaro in the meeting on Bergo- of the prodigal son, “looking from “All of civilization depends on the es- glio’s diplomacy, a “fluid vision” his terrace every evening to check if teem we have instant after instant af- through which places posing critical he is coming home and hoping so, ter instant for that you. It is a question problems become places of contact. despite everything and everyone.” of esteem.” Before all else, it is a good It was striking to hear Spadaro, like This hope has already changed a that you exist. This was the experi- other guests, repeat that he has yet piece of the world, has changed pris- ence of the Central African Republic, to understand the things he was ex- oners, judges, and families, through chosen to be the “spiritual capital” for plaining to the audience. This was the APAC method described in one the opening of the Holy Year. “We did a constant motif in the talks at the of the most visited exhibits. “If I’d not deserve it. We did not expect it. We Meeting, the “open” thought that is known you before, I would’ve put weren’t ready either. But it happened,” born only of experience, and that you in my exhibit!” exclaimed the recounted Fr. Federico Trinchero, a lives only in a bond. To be under- Ambassador from Honduras, Carlos Carmelite missionary in Bangui, who stood, it must be shared. In the end, Ávila Molina, in front of the Brazil- brought his testimony to Rimini. He those who brought their testimonies ian exhibit. He was among the cura- lifted up his robe to show his sandals, thanked their listeners, because they tors of the exhibit on mercy, dedicat- which are usually dirty, but that day needed them. ed to the “decision of forgiveness: a looked like new, because at all costs one “It is precisely when we understand personal and collective decision,” he of the 10,000 refugees of the civil war that we don’t understand,” said Tatiana said, as he picked up litter from the whom they have hosted in their mon- Kasatkina in the meeting on Dos- »

CAMILLO BALLIN, Vicar Apostolic of Northern Arabia

“If after 47 years I am still in the Arab world, it is because I have found the Christians and Muslims there to be brothers and sisters who accompany me in my life. What I have received so far is infinitely more than what I have given. I am glad to be able to say with all sincerity to any Arab or non-Arab sister or brother: you are a good for me. You have been a good for 47 years and you will continue to be a good for the rest of my life.”

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who accompanied her, ‘Today you’ve made me happy.’” Among the guides for the big exhibit “Migrants, the Challenge of the Encounter,” was Hassina, an Algerian student at the Catholic University of Milan. One day she was asked to accompany Mrs. Gültan Kisanak, the mayor of the Turkish city of Diyarba- kir. At a certain point the first citizen stopped in front of a photograph of Pope Francis bending over a child in the midst of a crowd of immigrants. “Here you really see how the Pope has a special attention, out of the ordinary,” she explained. “I didn’t no- tice that child, but the Pope not only noticed him, he stopped to take his hand. I want to do the same thing in Turkey.” Margherita was another guide who spent the week explaining the exhibit on migrants. “I realized “TODAY YOU MADE that the exhibit emerged through me, and I emerged through the exhibit. In fact, after every explanation people ME HAPPY” would stop and say they wanted to get to know me better, to meet and Stories, encounters, and discoveries. Here is what happened on the edges of talk about what they had seen, and notwithstanding my shyness, I end- the exhibitions, where word of mouth also praised the “lesser” proposals. ed up talking about myself to total strangers.” by Luca Fiore People were also struck by the 40-odd volunteers who came from hose who followed the itiner- word of mouth in some cases became the United States and Canada to talk “Tary we proposed left not so the must sees of this year’s Meeting. about the lives of “their” saints. Their much having understood something, “The most photographed panel vitality won over the Nuncio to Can- as having had an experience.” Fr. was the one entitled ‘The Positive ada, Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi, who Filippo Belli, who curated one of the Exists,’ which says, ‘The one way to asked to have the exhibit “American most loved exhibits of this Meeting, truly help is for us to accept that God Dream: On the Road with the Amer- “The Merciful Embrace,” was amazed is God,’” said Sister Mariangela, who ican Saints” translated into French by how many people were touched served as a guide for the exhibit on and brought to his country. personally, as seen in the hundreds of the history and activity of the Sisters But the surprise exhibit of this comments written on post-its at the of Charity of the Assumption. “The year was the one entitled “Nobody end of the exhibit path. An example? impression is that people’s hearts Can Escape From Love,” which de- One note said, “In four months, I lost were re-awakened. People often re- scribed the experience of the Brazil- both of my parents and it was hard for turned with some friends in tow.” ian APACs, prisons without bars or me to accept it, because I’m an only Sister Pinuccia also belongs to the guards. Daniel, who had been one child. But a few days ago I received Sisters of Charity, but she present- of these “prisoners,” was the exhib- a proposal of marriage and now I’m ed another exhibit, dedicated to her it in flesh and blood. For a week he getting married. Thanks to this exhibit brother, Fr. Augusto Gianola, a PIME repeated his story. “At a certain point I’ve understood that this was an act of missionary in the Amazon who died I said, ‘God, if You exist, change my God’s mercy.” 25 years ago. “People were struck life.’ And it truly happened.” Dan- How many stories, how many dis- by Augusto’s humanity, his freedom, iel explained the exhibit to many coveries, how many encounters hap- his desire to serve God with his rest- groups of children. At the end, one of pened visiting the exhibits this year, less and adventurous temperament. them hugged him, crying. He came and not only the main ones such as A woman with amyotrophic lateral from a difficult life with an abusive, those on Georgia or the 70 years of sclerosis came to the exhibit. She alcoholic father. “Daniel, from now the Republic of Italy, but also those could only communicate with one on I’m talking with the same God considered “lesser,” but which by eye. She wanted to tell the person you talked with.”

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» toevsky, “precisely in that moment, we see the other and not our image.” You put yourself in the other’s shoes, just as she is. The Archbishop of Bolo- gna, Matteo Zuppi, described the “rest- less” Church awakened by the Pope at the Florence Conference, and summa- rized her task as “having fondness for the human person,” which she lives with gusto, and gives to everyone with a promise. “We will discover many yous who will be our good!”

From Molokai to Calcutta. We can also discover a you from long ago, as was made clear by the major exhibit on the American saints. Their extraor- AMERICAN DREAM. The exhibit on the dinariness lay in their all-too-human saints who evangelized North America. humanity, which made exhibit visitors feel as if these saints were companions, because their imperfections “are the money, not love, and nobody wants her life conquered the Meeting, in the features of His face,” as the author of to work with someone who is differ- exhibit constructed to evoke the dusty Treasure Island, Robert Louis Steven- ent,” Guido finds that this you is not streets of Calcutta, designed to offer “a son, wrote of Fr. Damien de Veuster, something you say, but someone personal encounter” with her, with the who gave his life for the lepers of the you welcome, “because in doing so luminous way she offered up the dark island of Molokai. De Veuster’s story you receive the mystery of life.” night of the soul she experienced. moved Gandhi to say, “It would be in- Gandhi’s question about the “source” This Meeting was made up of strong teresting to understand the source of was elicited throughout the whole and simple presences, of the gratuitous such heroism.” week of the Meeting. It was prompt- generosity of the 417 volunteers who What is the source? The same ed by the endless charity of a friend- constructed it and the 2,190 volunteers question could be asked about the ship that rebuilt life in Friuli after the from Canada to China who spent the Jesuits missionaries in the 1600s earthquake 40 years ago; by the hidden week repeating the simple gestures of near the Great Lakes, as well as treasures of Georgia and the nation’s cleaning, deep-frying, raising the bar- about the beauty described in mod- faithfulness to its Christian origins; by rier, lowering the barrier, preparing ern-day USA by Guido Piccarolo, the way of working of the members of coffee for thousands of people a day, who works at the Los Angeles Ha- the Piacenti family, who are restoring doing things that nobody saw. “Many bilitation House, which helps veter- the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethle- things struck me,” said the number ans and people with disabilities who hem with the ardor of medieval cathe- one of ENI (the Italian national oil have difficulty finding and keeping dral builders; and by the infinite mys- and gas company), Claudio Descalzi, work. In this place where “time is tery of Mother Teresa. This mystery of at the Meeting for the first time. “The

EUGENE B. KORN, director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Cooperation and Understanding, Israel

“In Italian you say, ‘You are a good for me,’ that is, God wants both of us to be benevolent to the other, does not want enmity between us. None of us alone, neither the church nor the synagogue, can achieve the mission of God in the world. We need to cooperate and work together to reach and achieve our mission in full.”

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signal from the Europe of institutions), er, you may have everything you want, and the relationship between develop- but it is not life.” ment and religious freedom described “Life is a response to an invitation,” by Brian Grim, one of the protagonists Doninelli said. “An invitation that a sin- of the cycle of dialogues “Pieces of war, ner cannot refuse,” echoed Sandokan, a roads of peace,” organized by Monica former drug addict, sharing his story Maggioni, the president of RAI, the together with the young people of the Italian television agency. And by the Imprevisto community. Sandokan exhibit by Aid to the Church in Need was there with about ten people from about persecuted sisters and brothers the charitable association Bocatas, and the efforts to ensure that they are which every Friday for the last 20 years not alone. Attempts at understanding has brought food to drug addicts in a and at action. neighborhood of Madrid. Looking at These efforts may seem like noth- them it was difficult to say which were ing, but they penetrate the pain and “recovered” and which were not. They disorder of the world, as the wife of an are a group of friends who encoun- Orthodox priest, at the Meeting for the tered each other through an experience first time, said. “In this place your con- of gratuitousness. science is completely re-awakened. You The gift of the other and the other’s think you do a lot in your life, then you importance for us was a constant mo- first thing was the enormous energy arrive here and you understand that tif throughout the Meeting. “I cannot created by the selfless commitment of you haven’t even begun.” Or as a Mus- do without them,” Fr. Claudio Burgio, so many young people in the middle of lim mother from the “sensitive periph- chaplain of the juvenile prison of Mi- their summer holiday.” eries” of Paris said to the volunteers of lan, said of his young people. It was also The encounters of the week on the the Le Rocher association, brought to present in the testimonies of those who most varied of themes were oppor- the Meeting by Jean-François Morin: encountered the Sisters of Charity of tunities for gaining awareness, an im- “You are like pepper in a dish of cous- the Assumption, in the protagonists of portant help for real building, like the cous. There is a small amount, but it the Arab world, in the performances, discussion on Europe with Joseph gives flavor.” Together with Fr. Pepe of the book presentations, and in the gaze, Weiler and the presentations about the Argentine villas, Morin recounted among many, of Mary O’Callaghan of school, firms, Cuba, the family, and what it means to “live with” the people Notre Dame University, who spoke Syria, the latter with United Nations of the peripheries, not for or among, about the privilege of having a child special envoy Staffan de Mistura. but with them. He began the encounter with Down Syndrome and addressed by publicly thanking Elena, the young the theme of prenatal diagnosis. Every The invitation. Different perspectives volunteer who served as his hostess. He day her child asks her, “Are you happy?” on the needs of the world were of- could not get over the fact that she had “The encounter is not the repetition fered, like that of Jàn Figel, special en- gone to meet him at the Bologna air- of me and of you,” the President of the voy of the European Commission for port in the morning. “You are the gold Meeting, Emilia Guarnieri, said on the the promotion of religious freedom nugget of the world,” he said. “You. It is last day. “From the encounter emerges outside the EU (a new role, and a new the person, the other. Without the oth- something that was not there before.” T

MOHAMED FADHEL MAHFOUDH, Nobel Prize for Peace 2015

“To speak of our experience, I think there is no better context than this year’s Meeting. ‘The other is a good for me’ is exactly what happened in Tunisia […]. There was an effort to use the instrument of encounters. There was a work of perseverance, of listening to the other. It is thanks to this that the parties, who were on the verge of a harsher comparison of positions, were able to sit down together around a table.”

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THAT BRIDGE IS FOR ME A long-time friend (and a protagonist at the Meeting) recounts “his” Meeting, and the entreaty he carries within.

by Wael Farouq

he first time I participated in a dynamic for generating it. The the Meeting of Rimini was Meeting is nothing other than the in 2005. When I returned to incarnation of an ever-new expe- Cairo and my friends asked rience of encounter with the truth, what the Meeting was, the the forms of which are as varied Tonly way I could answer was to say, as human circumstances are. The “Come and see.” The next year I re- Meeting could not be a bridge be- turned to Rimini with two friends, tween peoples–they live such dif- a journalist and a judge. None of us ferent human circumstances!–ex- was able to find an answer to that cept as a bridge that I cross to reach question, other than “Come and my own truth. What other bridge see.” Every year, the most curious leads to the truth, if not the act it builds among them, but by the among my friends came to Rimi- of testifying to the truth? So then, journey traveled together toward ni, but none of them could come it can be said that the Meeting is the truth, the distance that every up with an explanation. Then, in the space in which the human cir- “I” travels to reach her or his own 2010 we organized the first Meet- cumstance becomes testimony, and truth, the desire to make it known ing of Cairo. It was the answer we testimony in turn becomes the hu- and to share it. For this reason, af- were looking for, the tree born of man circumstance that again opens terwards, all those who participate the seed that the Meeting of Rimi- to give form to a new experience or in the Meeting of Rimini want to ni had planted in our hearts and testimony. organize a similar event. brought to fruition. The most recent example was that The Meeting of Rimini is not a Toward the Mystery. At the Meet- of the Croatian Grand Mufti, an ex- collection of cultural events over ing of Rimini, Muslims, Jews, Bud- traordinary figure who, after losing the course of a week. It is a stimu- dhists, and atheists are amazed 36 members of his family including lus for searching for meaning and not so much by the bridges that his parents in the massacre of Sre-

JOSÉ MARIA “PEPE” DI PAOLA, villero parish priest in Buenos Aires, Argentina

“Francis told us that creativity could lead to the integration of precarious neighborhoods into a welcoming city. How beautiful are the cities that go beyond distrust, that integrate those who are different and make this integration a factor of development. How beautiful are the cities whose architectonic dreams are full of places that link people and promote the recognition of the other.”

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sion between the Hail Mary and Allahu akbar, in the joy of freshly baked bread and its aroma, in the terror of the migrant who sees his hopes foundering in the waves, in the beating of the drums with the echoes of a far-off past, in the deli- cacy of the piano that did not yield in front of the clamor of the audience. It was a journey of the spirit, illuminated and comforted by the symphony of voices and by the uni- ty of desire.

Miracles. In the circumstance of this search/yearning/testimony and desire for truth, we can do all things. We can search for the human being in technology, share the migrant’s faith in the humanity of Europe, a faith that leads him to throw himself into the sea. We can DIFFERENT VOICES. The meeting on Islam in Europe: from left, Aziz Hasanovic, encounter the leaders of a pris- Roberto Fontolan, and Wael Farouq. on without prisoners and without police, from which nobody tries to escape, because, as was written on brenica, is now traveling the world their originality. This was the case one of its walls, “nobody escapes to defend the rights of the mem- during the inaugural musical per- from love.” At the Meeting of Ri- bers of the same religious commu- formance of the Meeting, One Sin- mini, Europe does not let itself be nity that committed the massacre, gle Song. The harmony among the defined by the transitory, that is, by courageously asking in each forum singers and their voices, and that politics and the economy, but by he visits that Islamic discourse be between the Eastern and Western the essential, that is, by the prin- renewed in order to free itself from music, was entirely natural. ciples upon which her civilization violence, mirror contemporary life, Nobody noted that we found was built. and respond to the needs of peo- ourselves in front of two forms of When a gigantic event so pro- ple today. The Mufti found at the beauty separated by language, his- foundly immersed in reality, as is Meeting the suitable formula for tory, geography, and religion. We the Meeting of Rimini, follows a testifying to and sharing the truth. all let ourselves be transported by work plan dictated by a verse from In the search for the truth, ex- the rhythm of the yearning for poetry, it is not strange that mira- periences intersect without losing the Mystery, incarnated in the fu- cles happen. T

STAFFAN DE MISTURA, UN Special Envoy for Syria

“Aleppo, all the cities of Syria, are like our lives, dear friends: when things are difficult, when we are in trouble, we need faith. Faith in ourselves, but most of all to see the confidence in others, the sensation that ‘we’re not an impossible cause; we shouldn’t be abandoned as a lost cause.’ No. Aleppo deserves this, as does all of Syria, to hear ‘We’re with you!’”

No 8 2016 15

OCCHIELLO UNITED STATES

A PRECIOUS GEM

One year ago, Pope Francis’ historic visit shattered many assumptions, including assumptions about faith and politics. Since then, what has changed? And what is at stake in the race between Hillary and Trump? The first stop in a two-part journey in the USA, where the countdown to Election Day has begun. by Mattia Ferraresi

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t was exactly one year ago that Pope to overcome the boundaries set by ide- of the moral good.” Francis delivered one of his most ologies, and to go beyond labels that, In other words, it turns our perspec- powerful speeches during his visit even among Catholics, reduce political tive on its head. Period. It was a pre- to the USA, in which he remind- engagement to an argument between cious gem bestowed on us during that ed the U.S. Congress of their call progressives and conservatives, Dem- Apostolic visit in a radically polarized A PRECIOUS GEM Ias representatives of the people to ocrats and Republicans. context dominated by wounds within “defend and preserve the dignity of In the country that prides in calling it- the parties themselves. your fellow citizens in the tireless and self the land of the free, the evangelical demanding pursuit of the common “City on a Hill” admired and beheld The pressing challenge. After one good, for this is the chief aim of all pol- by all the world as an example, the year, the situation could not be more itics.” The Pope’s apostolic visit, which Pope gave a powerful reminder to put fragmented–America heads into the went through Cuba before coming to our focus back on the common good, presidential elections on November the United States (on September 22nd), which, according to the Church’s social 8th on a road marked by uncertainty. had a fundamentally political mission, teaching, “does not consist in the sim- The Republican Party has been shat- yet was devoid of politics and stra- ple sum of the particular goods of each tered by the blows of Donald Trump, tegic tactics. The Pope exhorted the subject of a social entity”; rather, it is the anti-system candidate who American people and its institutions the “social and community dimension crusades under a message that »

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» America is isolated and ailing, protected by walls and border check- points from external threats, whether they be migrants crossing over the Mexican border or Chinese merchan- dise undermining the domestic labor force. The 16 other candidates who contended for the Republican nom- ination were swept away, a powerful sign that the political elite is presently incapable of understanding and inter- ceding on behalf of the needs of the people. Hillary Clinton has become the nominee of the Democratic party seeking conquest of the White House, though during the primary campaign she struggled against Bernie Sanders, who began as an unknown Indepen- dent senator with a socialist platform, but today is recognized as the master- mind of a formidable campaign that seized the hearts and minds of mil- lions of young Americans. This landscape, which may appear tions on fiscal conservatism.” Groups desolate, makes the Pope’s challenge like the American Solidarity Party do even more urgent. In the face of the col- “This round of voting not have a great impact on electoral lapse of old certainties that is demon- [in the primaries] is percentages or seats in Congress, but strated in the crisis of the parties and unprecedented. For this Gregory sees its emergence as “a small the erosion of the concept of represen- testimony of the effort to overcome tation, it is crucial that we construct en- reason, the Pope’s invitation the radical dichotomy, found also in tities capable of regaining momentum to overcome polarization is the Catholic Church, between Pro- for building up the common good. gressives and Conservatives, a debate “This round of voting [in the pri- even more significant.” between those who put all the empha- maries] is unprecedented and revo- sis on social justice and those who put lutionary, especially because Trump all of it on ethics.” shook up the conservative movement. emulate, and this sets off a quest to be For this reason, the Pope’s invitation creative, to imagine solutions that Words and gestures. In the midst of to overcome polarization is even more allow us to collaborate with a spirit this political moment marked by pro- significant,” says historian Brad Greg- of realism.” found confusion, where the only con- ory, a professor at Notre Dame Uni- Gregory cites as an example the stant is the vast distance between the versity. At the same time, the fact that birth of the American Solidarity Par- ruling class and the people, Fr. Thom- the two candidates competing for the ty, a small group inspired by the mot- as Reese, a Jesuit priest and analyst for White House are among the most un- to “Common good, common ground, the National Catholic Reporter, sees popular in recent history, and that this common sense.” The presidential an opportunity which is almost para- is taking place during a fundamental candidate of this small party, Michael doxical. “The Church is one of the few crisis in the party system, illustrates, Maturen, describes himself in his bi- American entities that bring together according to Gregory, “the limits of ographical profile as a “Catholic who both Democrats and Republicans, so politics, which cannot answer all of spent most of his political life as a it is in a privileged position to begin a man’s questions: it’s difficult for voters conservative Republican,” but later, genuine conversation on the common to believe that the candidates are ‘in- “extensive reading on the views of the good. From a certain perspective, this carnations of morality,’ role models to Church... led him to question his posi- is the most fortuitous time to clarify

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tory run its course. However, by doing so, we deny the profoundly human desire to be responsible actors, to be part of something great, and to grapple with social reality–all of which lies at the core of any democratic endeavor.”

Disillusionment. This re-awakening and rebuilding of the person is at the heart of the political race. In this context, the full-blown crisis of the parties that has spread throughout the nation over the past year, taking over the public space, has opened a door of opportunity. What opportunity? An end to the idolatry of politics, reminding us of what is not at all as- BETWEEN GOD AND CAESAR. Pope Francis sumed in America (which is, accord- speaks before President Barack Obama ing to Jean Beaudrillard, the “original during his visit in September 2015. version of modernity”)–that politics is incapable of solving everything; it is not an instrument that, once calibrat- the pertinence of Catholic social teach- ed properly, will introduce a society ing, a vision that unites those who want “so perfect that no one will need to to have a dialogue, from within and “The Church brings be good,” as T.S. Eliot put it. The fact from outside of Catholicism.” together both Democrats that the candidates facing each other For Reese, the great achievement of and Republicans, so it is in a in November were chosen more out Francis’ trip to America is to have “set of anger and resentment than con- the tone in the conversation.” Amer- privileged position to begin viction shows evidence of disillusion- ica, he explains, “does not remember a genuine conversation on ment with a system that has fooled its discourses, but it remembers the itself into believing that it can account sense, transmitted especially through the common good.” for and answer every human need. gestures, of an openness: openness to It is through realism that the per- those who are last, to the unwanted, to son once again becomes a protago- immigrants, and, more generally, open- coming elections. It states: “We have nist of politics, as the flyer explains: ness to the other.” In this “ultra-ideo- reduced our political agency to merely “We are called to be the protagonists logical” political climate, characterized expressing our opinion on Facebook, of our own history by witnessing to by the adoption of a more European or somewhat more actively, to casting one another what we hold most dear, conception of politics rather than the a ballot,” and continues: “We seem to and by supporting one another in American pragmatism that supported have lost the deeply rooted desire to the pursuit of truth. This is what a the art of compromise for decades, Re- be protagonists in the political process free democratic country needs. Oth- ese finds it difficult to open up a dis- which has historically distinguished erwise, we will become prey to the cussion. “Yet, I cannot think of a more American democracy. The apathy that tyranny of the loudest voice in the convincing promoter than Francis to characterizes our time does not origi- room. This is the spirit of the Ameri- set things in motion,” he adds. nate in the political process, nor does can people we seek to rediscover and It is within this context that a fly- it confine itself to politics. Its source is develop. In November we will vote er was released this summer on the quite different–we are dealing with a for the candidate that most closely judgment made by the American CL crisis of the person. We seem content mirrors our genuine desires, but after community, in which there is an acute watching and commenting, drawing having voted we will not be finished. sense of urgency in the face of the up- back into our safe spaces, letting his- There is much to be done.” T

No 8 2016 19

OCCHIELLO MOTHER TERESA

After 40 years as a hospital nurse in a ward for children with incurable cancer, TERESA VOLPATO retired and then learned that she herself had cancer. This is the story of her journey to Calcutta and encounter with the sister, now proclaimed a saint, who turned her life upside down, and of her “contract” with God. by Paola Bergamini “WHO ARE YOU?”

eresa looked outside the win- the page. I’ll be able to dedicate myself Only a few days had passed, but it dow at the winter mist that en- completely to mountain climbing, and seemed like an eternity. Teresa picked veloped the houses in Cittadel- finish traveling the piece of the world I up the pile of accumulated mail, and la. How long had she lain there haven’t seen yet.” Enough of watching her eye fell on a bright red envelope. immobile? An hour? Maybe children suffer, accompanying them She opened it. It was a travel agency Tlonger. She could not remember. She to their death. Instead, irony of ironies, ad for a trip to India. She had already took a look at the calendar: January everything vanished the day of her been there. Other countries were 1996. She had been incapable of do- goodbye party in the ward. A colleague much better. Even so, she picked up ing anything since her return from the had handed her an envelope with just the phone and called. There was one hospital. Teresa the skier. Teresa the her name on it: Teresa Volpato. It was place left, if her passport was up-to- mountain climber, never still. A month the result of her latest exam. Distract- date. Ten days later she landed in earlier, after 40 years of service as head edly she had read the report–malig- Calcutta. The first evening, the group nurse at the Center for Childhood nant breast cancer. Three days later, guide described their plans. “For those Leukemia in Padua, when she was told she had already had surgery, involving who would like it, tomorrow morn- that she had to retire, her reaction had complete mutilation. Then the thera- ing at 5:30 there is Mass with Mother been, “Well, at the age of 60 you turn py: chemo, radiation... Teresa in the Missionaries of Charity

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at her a few times with her hand. She wanted Teresa to come to her. Teresa went. The Mother gestured for Teresa to kneel beside her. The Mass began. At the moment of Communion, Teresa watched the sisters lining up, and observed that their faces were not those of simpletons. Many of them were young, some of them very beautiful. The breast cancer, the travels, and the projects seemed so far away. A thought almost forced itself on her: why do they do it? What am I here to do?

“Why do they do it?” When the cel- ebration ended, Mother Teresa gestured for her to follow. In a few min- utes, they were joined by a sister who translated into Italian: “What do you want to ask Mother?” “If I can remain a few days to work in her houses.” That sentence spurted out of her mouth, without even passing through her head. Mother Teresa simply said, “Welcome.” Teresa asked her, “Start- ing when?” “Tomorrow morning.” “All right.” In the hotel, her travel companions bombarded her: “You’re nuts! You of all ON THE ALTAR. Rome, September 4th: the image people!” This seemed like an annoying of Mother Teresa at Saint buzz to Teresa. That insistent question Peter’s Basilica on the day pulsed within: why do they do it? of her canonization. The next day, in the house on Bose Road, the sister who welcomed her asked, “Where do you want to work?” convent.” “Who is this Mother Tere- plain that black mark on the floor. “You decide.” “What do you know how sa?” she asked. Everyone looked at her, In the church on A.J.C. Bose Road, to do?” “Nothing.” She had decided horrified. “A saint! She won the Nobel Teresa found herself pressed against to start from zero. “You’ll go with the Prize for Peace.” But Teresa had decid- the wall. In front of her was a sea of handicapped children. Now come with ed at the age of 16 that God and the white, the saris of sisters who had ar- me.” The sister accompanied Teresa to Church did not interest her, and that rived from all over the world for the the landing of the stairs just outside the they had nothing to do with her life. General Chapter. Looking at them, chapel, where Mother Teresa blessed She told the guide, “OK. I’ll see you all she thought, “Poor simpletons, who the over two hundred volunteers one after breakfast.” End of discussion. don’t know how to enjoy life.” A wom- by one, saying to each of them, “God At dawn she was awakened by a an next to her elbowed her and said, bless you.” Teresa did not believe in that strange odor. The mosquito repel- “There she is, Mother Teresa, there in God, but she stood in line. She wanted lent coil had burned the carpet. She the wheelchair.” Teresa observed that to understand. She wanted to see. heard the voices of her travel com- insignificant little old woman full of In Shishu Baavhan (the children’s panions in the corridor as they were wrinkles, in front of whom the world home), Teresa spoon-fed the sick and preparing for the Mass. She decided bowed down. Their gazes met for a few looked around her: the little ones were to go, if only to put off having to ex- seconds, then Mother Teresa gestured in ramshackle wheelchairs and »

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» baby walkers. She asked the sister, “Can’t they be fixed?” “If you want to, do it!” “Where can I find a hammer and nails?” “You have to provide them yourself.” She acquired everything needed and began with the wheelchairs, then painted the cribs, and whitewashed the walls, involving the other volunteers. She had ripped up her return ticket. Even though at times she wanted to escape, every morning she got in line to hear again Mother Te- resa’s words: “God bless you.” Their afternoons were free. The sisters invited the volunteers to the hour of adoration. Teresa was not interest- ed; she only wanted to do practical things. But one afternoon a strange curiosity pushed her to go. She listened to Mother Teresa say, at the beginning, “I don’t care what God you A FRIENDSHIP. Here, Mother Teresa on the pray to, but pray. Come to Mass and roads of Calcutta in 1979. Right, above: Teresa to adoration invoking your Lord.” Te- Volpato in the Kalighat clinic; the distribution of food and medicine in a village; Teresa with resa gave a start. “This woman doesn’t the saint of Calcutta. even care to explain her religion.” She began going to Mass. ment near the mother house. One p.m. She was fast and precise. The sister Kalighat. After three months, she re- morning a physician sister, her great observed her and as they returned to turned to Italy for medical follow-up friend, asked, “Tomorrow are you the truck she said, “You’re good. Where and to have an evaluation of the treat- available to help me in the clinics?” did you learn?” “Forty years of hospital ment she had continued on her own “To do what, Sister Andrea?” “Treat- work.” “From now on, you’re with me.” in India. The tumor had not disap- ing wounds, bandages, whatever you “All right.” She always obeyed. Her Ital- peared, but she had never thought can do.” “All right.” ian friends would have been stunned: about it, just as she had never thought The following morning, seeing them this was totally out of character for her. about whether it was worthwhile to load medicines, clothes and food onto Every day, a different village. A few keep on living. She lived. a truck, she asked, “Where’s weeks later, they brought a woman When she landed in the clinic?” A volunteer, with burns all over her body. Her hus- Padua, she heard the without stopping, an- band had set her on fire. Teresa did news that Mother Tere- swered: “It’s this truck.” Af- what she could, and, discouraged, said, sa had died. Her friends ter an hour’s journey they “She can’t remain here. She’ll die.” Sis- and relatives called and reached a village where a ter Andrea responded, “If we bring her asked, “Now what do you Teresa Volpato. line of over five hundred to Kalighat, the house for the dying, think you’ll do?” Her an- people had formed. The will you take care of her?” “Yes.” swer was clear: “I have to physician sister told her, Teresa divided her time between Ka- return.” For the sick, for the children, “Go to the church steps and prepare lighat and the clinics. She was good. to see those sisters again, to be with the clinic. They will come to have their She knew all the medicines and how to them, friends like she had never had wounds dressed. Then, give each per- use them. The sisters noticed this and before. Questions filled her thoughts: son a piece of aluminum foil with a bit brought her a new sick person every who is this God they follow? The an- of ointment and medical cream. Those day, to the point that she had to decide swer is in Calcutta. who need an examination, send to me.” to remain with the dying, she, a person This time she rented a small apart- Teresa began and did not stop until two who never again wanted to see people

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MOTHER TERESA

newed her request: “I’m not ready yet. I need another 10 years.” In February of 2016 the contract expired again. Teresa returned to Italy because of a grave pulmonary com- plication, which was then resolved. In her home in Cittadella, in that living room where everything began 20 years before, she recounts, “On August 17th, I’ll be 80 years old. I’ve given myself a gift: a ticket to Calcutta. My contract with God has ended; if He so chooses, I’m ready, but now I’m returning to In- dia.” Will she attend the canonization ceremony? “For me, as for many, she is already a saint. From the very beginning, seeing what she had generated, I thought: I have truly encountered God. Otherwise all this would be humanly impossible. Today you still understand this when you are with the sisters.”

The album. She draws a photo album out of a drawer. She is a good photog- rapher. There are the faces of Mother Teresa, the sisters, the sick people, the dying. After a few weeks, Sister Tall–a The next morning she was still there, children... 20 years of life. “The most nickname given because of her height– and the next morning after that. She beautiful years. I think that the 40 years stopped her and said, “At the contem- spent three days in conversation with in the hospital served to prepare me for plative sisters [one of the branches of the God, and at the end asked for a priest the encounter with Jesus. He has be- order founded by Mother Teresa] there to hear her confession. It was a new become my friend, my brother. I talk with is a room with a kneeler and exposi- ginning. She wrote her Italian friends, Him, ask Him for advice. He always tion of the Blessed Sacrament. Why “My life is captivating. I feel a serenity answers. In the beginning my friends don’t you spend a period of spiritual I have never felt before. I feel loved, by thought I’d gone crazy, but then they exercises there?” Teresa did not under- God.” The sisters had full trust in her began to raise funds and some of them stand. “What? With whom? For how abilities, but beyond that, repeatedly came to Calcutta to stay with me and long?” “Alone, a week for yourself. Go, told her: “In the face of the sick person the sisters. To see.” pray, speak with Jesus. Only you must you must see God; in this way you re- What about the mountain climbing never abandon Him. When you want main in conversation with Him.” They and the skiing she had promised her- to leave, let us know and we will find a brought her those who were in the self? “I haven’t seen a mountain since substitute for you.” “All right.” No ob- worst condition, full of worms, with then. A few days ago I got together jection or excuses this time, and curi- purulent wounds, whose gaze asked, with some friends of my youth, the old osity was not the motivation that drove “Can you do something?” But Teresa group I used to go hiking with. We’ve her. It was something she could not do felt another question: “Are you capable all aged. Some of them, thinking about without. of following Me?” death, feel dismay. But after what I’ve She never left Kalighat. She had seen and experienced in Calcutta, I Loved by God. The first morning after made one request of Jesus: “I have have a different awareness of life and only an hour she wanted to escape. She emerged from my torpor. Let’s make death. And, if I think of the latter, I’m left and returned. That evening, walk- a contract: give me ten years of life not afraid.” Teresa smiles, and seems ing home, she sat down at every corner, and I’ll give You my best effort.” In happy. Maybe with her heart and mind in a daze. “Who are You?” she asked. 2006, the contract expired and she re- already back in Calcutta. T

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