Sergio Sciascia, after visiting the Professional Training Center of the Franciscan Work "Charitas", recorded the testimony of Egle Bottega, the Center's director, as she reflects on how she discovered her calling.
I had lived for a long time in Latin America and had no religious formation. In Bolivia I met the sister of Father Eletto Bottega. When I came to Italy, I went to greet him in the conventional way one does these things. I met him at the Center, where there were young women discharged from psychiatric hospitals: the staff was untrained, resources were scarce, and Father Bottega asked me to stay for a couple of weeks. I accepted out of curiosity, as a student might, to have an experience—but after two days I went home. "Why waste time with these people," I told myself, "what is someone intelligent and dynamic like Eletto Bottega doing here?" That night, though, I couldn't sleep. After three days I called the Center: "I'd like to come back."
I came back. And I stayed.
Father's vision was my starting point. But as I grew into the work, I came to understand that we needed something deeper—a more genuine human relationship, and a leap forward in psychological understanding and organization.
That is the path we have taken.
In 1974, an Association formed to support the Work, made up of "people deeply motivated to contribute their values and ideas in service to the marginalized."
In 1974, Father Eletto died.
Today (1983, ed. note) we serve seventy young people each year, helping them grow as persons. We are about to open a farm for those who have nowhere to go when they leave here. In a few days, I will go to live at that farm.
Read also: Professional Training Center of the Franciscan Work "Charitas" in Vicenza