Tuesday the 23rd, with my community, we are ready to depart from Messina station for our first pilgrimage so far from home. Then we arrive in Rome, and the joy on the young people's faces as they sleep near St. Peter's. The next day we are all in the square, meeting up with other friends from Fede e Luce, and I, together with the other provincial coordinators, leave our communities to climb onto the steps of the basilica. How sad not to experience this moment with them—and yet what joy to see all of Fede e Luce together, unified, with some of the young people and their mothers in the front row, waiting to be greeted by the Pope.
The Pope's address opened our pilgrimage beautifully. He touched the wounds of the family with a gentle hand—wounds to welcome and heal. That is exactly what we live with every day.
In Assisi it was moving to walk together through the streets of Santa Maria degli Angeli, with us leading the way. That long procession of young people, friends, and parents, the communities carrying their banners. I have made that journey many times, always pushing a different wheelchair: beautiful, intense, a chance to exchange with fellow travelers who were always new—a way to meet or reconnect in fresh ways.
The testimonies were moving and powerful. Though I knew what they would say, having helped organize the event, the emotion they carried was strong and real. Marié Hélène's story, Marcella's journey, the families from Fede e Luce and beyond, the Bishop of Assisi who welcomed us with such surprise, the mimes who opened each day at the Lyrick—it gave me hope for our future and confirmed that joy can always exist, even in the face of suffering.
Bla blaThe work was hard, certainly, but everyone's collaboration made it possible for everything to unfold as well as it could, despite the obstacles we faced.
What I carry with me, beyond all the grandeur of the event, is how beautiful and generous the simplicity of Fede e Luce truly is.
Carlo Gazzano - Coordinator, Mari e Vulcani Province, 2015
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