Armando Morzilli was one of the first five children welcomed to the Il Chicco dell'Arca community when it began its work. Though deeply fragile, his life held a mysterious significance for all who knew him—including Father Gerard Daucourt, Bishop Emeritus of Nanterre, who walked alongside Armando even in his final days. In August, we witnessed a moment when Armando surprised us with his struggle to live. After various hardships that led him to spend his last year away from home, Armando Morzilli died on November 15, 2020, at age 39. What follows is one of the messages that Father Gerard continued to send him (along with phone calls): it is a priest's testimony of how his vocation deepened precisely through Armando, whom he nicknamed the Prince.
Dearest Armando, you know I am miles away from you, but I am not far in prayer and affection. Your smile, your voice, your gaze that always says "come to me"—all of this reaches me through Guenda, and I want to say thank you. In thought I go back decades to the day of your first communion. On that day we understood clearly that Jesus, through you, was announcing his presence to us and calling us to love one another. It became plain that Jesus in the Eucharist and Jesus in Armando were two real presences of God who loves us and calls us to love. Your special presence at Il Chicco, in the Church, and in our hearts was definitively established from that day forward. Thank you, Armandino, for carrying out your mission to the very end. I know that in these days you resemble Jesus even more—Jesus who loves us on the Cross. I pray that he gives you his strength in your heart, and that without suffering too much you may see his beautiful smile, which I am certain looks like yours. Thank you, thank you, dear Prince, for helping shape the priest and bishop that I am. I have spoken of you in hundreds of homilies, conferences, and meetings. How you have helped me speak of Jesus! The grace of having met you is beyond measure. It is one of the greatest gifts the Lord has given me. Thank you!
I bless you and embrace you with all my heart.
After his death, Father Gerard remembered him this way.
Dear G.,
I have thought of you all day long, and I wished I could have been at your side. The sacred history you lived with Armando is unique, and only you know its depths. Therefore, no one can imagine how deeply you have been touched. There are many beautiful and sincere messages of affection in the WhatsApp group, and I believe they may be good support—but only you know what cannot be expressed in words in your relationship with the Prince. Your relationship with him? Or his relationship with you? Both, of course. Together, you have taught us so much about human connection. Armando gave us a wonderful gift by teaching us that words are not what matters most.
I remember that American whose name I have forgotten, who wanted to leave Il Chicco after only three days. In the end, he stayed. I asked him why, and he told me it was because Armando had asked him to. Then I said to him, "How could he ask you that, if he doesn't speak?" He answered: "By looking at him, I understood Armando's silent message asking me—Do I exist for you? Do you love me?—and I decided to say yes." Armando was a great silent missionary. I remember all the changes that took place in many caregivers after his first communion. And he continued, I know—and you have witnessed it.
Like all our small and poor brothers and sisters, he was a real presence of Jesus, as real as in the Eucharist, but obviously in a different way. Weak and fragile Jesus was present in him, for him, and through him for us. You know this better than I do, because you experienced it until the end. In his second-to-last chapter, he was the abandoned Jesus whose dignity had been trampled. Through you, he lived his final chapter surrounded by so many friends who, with you, showered him with prayers and affection.
Armando and the friends of Il Chicco have marked my path in the Church profoundly. They taught me not to succumb to the negative influences that can be found in the Roman Curia, and also to give priority to the small and the weak in my ministry until today. I cannot say enough: thank you to him and to you.
I do not know what we are in eternal love, but I am certain that now the Prince is equal with all. And in God he participates in God's activity—that is, he loves us in God. So you are sad, I am sad, but we must not let sadness overcome us. We must rejoice in Armando's victory and in the help he provides us now in another form. So we can remember with emotion all the beautiful memories of his time among us. Rejoice, dear G., in what the Lord made you do for Armando, and in all that he did through Armando for you, for us, for so many others.