Two pieces of good news, three hundred kilometers apart, have brightened recent months for the Faith and Light province of Seas and Volcanoes, which encompasses Sicily, Campania, Basilicata, and Puglia. The news is the birth of what we in the movement call "seeds"—groups beginning to gather around the charism of Faith and Light that, if they persevere on the journey, may soon become new communities.
The most recent seed sprouted around last September in Castellammare di Stabia. That's where Antonio Piscitelli, the provincial vice-coordinator for Campania, runs his pediatric practice. He began spreading the word among families with members who have intellectual disabilities about a movement dedicated to forging friendships with and among people wounded in mind. A nucleus of about ten parents, mostly mothers, came together. It was time to visit them, to carry a testimony about how Faith and Light was born and how it lives in Italy and around the world.
The provincial missioner, Gianni Guerra, and his wife Rosita (vice-coordinator for Puglia and Basilicata) made the trip to Castellammare and met not only the interested families but also the bishop of Castellammare, Monsignor Alfano, and representatives of the diocesan Health council. From then on, the seed began meeting regularly, and by December they had gathered a couple of times. In the experience of the Campania communities—particularly in Acerra, but also in Naples and now in Castellammare—the support of bishops has proven precious and in some cases decisive. It's a beautiful thing, especially since it doesn't happen everywhere. The Castellammare seed chose the name "The Little Key." Those of us who have been in Faith and Light longer remember this as the title of a beloved, semi-clandestine pamphlet that circulates among our communities. It collects the addresses Cardinal Martini directed to the movement during the many times he encountered us. In recent years, our provincial team has been meditating deeply on this text.
"Beautiful Gate" (the one at the Temple in Jerusalem where Peter performed his first miracle after Jesus' death) is the name chosen by the seed born in Acquaviva delle Fonti, a town of twenty thousand people in the Murge area near Bari, thirty kilometers from the city. This seed's story highlights how important it is for Faith and Light to have a stable, centralized structure that, through its website and social channels, maintains relationships with those outside the movement.
Our first contact with the Acquaviva group came from an email our new friend Vincenzo Caporusso sent to our Rome office, which was then passed to the provincial team. Gianni Guerra reached out to Vincenzo, who had long worked with a day center for people with disabilities at his parish, and so the seed was planted. The group is small and has an unusual makeup—a dozen people: Vincenzo, one mother, and ten people with disabilities. Their journey is closely tied to the day center the young people attend, and over time, this could become a problem. We are working to establish the Faith and Light path independently from related associations and structures, and above all, we are inviting other parents to join the journey. Another concern is that the priest who helped birth the seed is being transferred, and we hope this won't affect the group. OL