Here is another community, another association, that proves authentic Christianity is alive—that the words of Jesus Christ, two thousand years later, still have the power to transform human lives and save them. The members of this Community, founded and guided today by Don Oreste Benzi, truly believe Christ's words: "Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me." They build their lives on that foundation. Their program is simple: conform your life to the image of Jesus poor and servant, sharing directly in the life of the last and least. Notice—not "helping the last and least," but "sharing life with them."
Here in Vicenza, at via Bixio 8, there is a family home run by the Papa Giovanni XXIII Community. I came to visit. I had arranged to meet Mario Catabiani—the father figure, as they call him—in mid-afternoon. Above the doorbell are written the names of everyone in the household. A young woman lets me in. Mario hasn't arrived yet; I can wait in the living room.
In the living room, neat and clean like any ordinary home, sits a girl in her twenties, quiet, a little untidy. I introduce myself. Her name is Carmelina. She asks what I've come to do. I tell her I wanted to speak with Mario, and learn about their house. She asks where I live.
"Rome."
"Is there a playground in Rome?"
"Yes. A big one called Luna Park. And here in Vicenza?"
"Yes, in Vicenza too. I've been there."
Between each question and answer, Carmelina pauses a few seconds. I tell her I need to look over my notes—does she mind?
Without answering, Carmelina goes to the sideboard, takes out two notebooks and a pen, returns to the table, opens them, and begins copying with her left hand in neat script from one notebook to the other. For a while we write in silence. A boy of about sixteen comes in carrying medicine boxes: does it bother me if he does his breathing treatment here? No! What's it for? He explains his condition. I ask if the beautiful guitar on the sofa is his. It is.
"Are you good at it?"
"So-so..."
"What do you like to play best?"
"Country. Want to hear some?"
He plays well—a couple of pieces.
I ask if he knows "Blowin' in the Wind."
He plays it for me.
From outside, a woman's voice calls for Carmelina: she's needed in the other room. But Carmelina pretends not to hear.
Don Oreste Benzi, founder of the Papa Giovanni XXIII Community, in one of the family homes.
Come on, Carmelina, go help out, the boy says.
Carmelina gets up with a sigh and leaves. Half a minute later she's back—either she was very fast, or she gave up the moment she started.
From the doorway come the sounds and smells of dinner being prepared.
Mario arrives. He's in a wheelchair; he has limited use of his hands.
I ask him about the Community's family homes.
Community—What Kind?
The Papa Giovanni XXIII Community is not simply a collection of family homes or residential communities.
The Community is made up of people—men and women, lay and ordained, married and unmarried—who recognize in themselves a particular calling to live the life of Jesus in his aspect as poor and servant, and to share their lives with the last and least. What makes it a community is this mutual recognition of a common calling and a willingness to walk the path together. This takes different forms: some are mother or father figures in a family home; others are married with their own children, creating an open family that welcomes others, especially through fostering arrangements; still others remain unmarried. Sharing life doesn't necessarily mean bringing the poor into your home. Sometimes a person needs to walk a stretch of the road with you—maybe until they recover, or find a home, or get a job. "The poor person takes you, and you don't leave them as long as they need you."
Community members have ordinary jobs in factories, offices, or workshops, or they study at university, or they choose to give all their time to a family home so it can expand its capacity to welcome others.
How It Sustains Itself Financially
Legally, the Community is an association. Income comes from the salaries of working members, fees paid by public agencies, and donations. "We live and there's no problem, because we pool everything together, following the example of the early church."
We want our relationship with public agencies to be honest: they should pay for the young people sent to us by social workers, health services, and municipalities, since those young people have a right to care. We don't want to do charity for the public agencies, but for those who have nothing and nobody. "For instance, we have a foreigner here who is one hundred percent disabled, with only a residence permit and no pension or public support."
A family home is a unit of the Association: it sets a monthly spending ceiling, reviewed every six months, and receives an allowance from the Association. "The basis of this method is our choice not to own or control anything, and to live soberly. The mother and father figures receive no salary; the family home receives no fees. Otherwise it would become a small institution. We want it to be a real family."
What Are the Limits to Welcoming?
When we receive a request to take someone in, we first ask for a thorough report. Then we evaluate—the family home does this—based on what we can offer technically, materially, spiritually: we measure our own strength. Of course, we don't hold back. We give ourselves twenty-four hours a day. We welcome those nobody else will take, not primarily to cure or educate them, but because the Lord sends them to us.
For people struggling with addiction, we have several therapeutic communities, especially in Emilia-Romagna. For some, a family home can work during the initial welcome period, during the months of preparation while they attend counseling before entering a therapeutic community.
Who Runs a Family Home
In each family home, there is first the mother figure and the father figure, then conscientious objectors doing their alternative service, volunteers, and people doing their year of experience—a kind of novitiate to test their calling—before deciding whether to join the Community.
How the Community Is Organized
The Community is divided into "zones." The Vicenza zone, for example, has about sixty members. Within each zone, members are organized into "nuclei"—groups of roughly ten people living in different states and circumstances. Members of each nucleus meet once a week to discuss problems, support one another, offer fraternal correction, and nourish their spiritual life.
If someone needs time to rest or to recharge spiritually, they can ask for a vacation or a retreat, and other homes can provide replacements. "The children of one family home belong to the whole Community, not just that one home."
How to Join the Community
The spiritual path into the Community is well captured in two remarks by Don Benzi. "When someone wants to do their experience"—that is, their year of verification in a family home—"Don Benzi asks if they have good knees, because to stand upright you must kneel, which means praying a lot. In fact, almost every home has a little chapel. Then he asks if they have strong shoulders, to carry the cross. It's not professional training as educators or psychologists that we're asked for. Our first profession is to be faithful to our calling, to the example of the Lord."
After the trial year, the person declares to the Community brothers and sisters that they recognize this calling in themselves and commit to living it together with them. This presupposes, among other things, renouncing self-will—what amounts to a vow of obedience, or a commitment to act in harmony with the Community.
The Community numbers about eight hundred "brothers and sisters," and it is growing.
How the Community Is Led
Decisions of general importance are usually made by all Community members together with the general coordinator. Decisions affecting a single zone are made by the zone's members together with the zone coordinator. The zone coordinator is elected for three years or chosen directly by the general coordinator. The general coordinator is elected for six years. Coordinators can also make decisions independently.
- Sergio Sciascia, 1993
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