Sexuality and Disability
Hello to everyone at the editorial office.
I received the latest issue of Ombre e Luci and I want to congratulate you on how you handled the theme of sexuality and disability. You approached it with great tenderness and remarkable balance—qualities that are all too rare. This subject matters to me deeply, both as a disabled person and professionally, and I read every page with pleasure.
Silvia Tamberi
A Magnificent Issue
Dear friends in Italy, I want to tell you, even if only briefly, how captivated I was by the beautiful issue of Ombre e Luci devoted entirely to Fede e Luce. The work is truly superb, and it's clear you labored on it with love! My fervent hope is that it will bear abundant fruit, exactly as Jesus desires—that it will help new families, new friends, and new parishes discover the beauty of Fede e Luce, and that you will be rewarded for your dedication. And that the smallest among us may be welcomed with ever greater love, to God's glory. Warmest greetings to you all.
Viviane Le Polain
(International Coordinator of Fede e Luce)
United and Grateful to Fede e Luce
I am a priest and the paternal uncle of Giacomo Briatore, son of my brother Ezio and Silvana, who leads the Fede e Luce community in Mondovì. My nephew, who shares my name, was born with severe cerebral damage and is now thirty years old, surrounded by the love of his family and the solidarity of many friends.
I feel deeply united with and grateful to the Fede e Luce movement. The article by Father Enrico Cattaneo S.J. in the January 2003 issue was both moving and compelling.
May God the Father bless and illuminate your precious work.
Giacomo Briatore - (Director, Home for Elderly and Infirm Clergy)
Gritting My Teeth
(...) I have no way to meet this new health crisis that has come upon me.
Why is life so unfair?
I already carry the chronic pain God has given me—why is he taking my health from me?
Who will care for my daughter if I collapse?
Is it right that we parents, so tested, cannot find real and concrete help from our institutions?
There is endless talk of charity here and there, of help for families—but where is the new assistance law from 2000? We're now in 2003 and nothing is visible here. No, dear friends, I am living this in my own body: if you hadn't helped me more than once, I don't know what I would have done, because there are no answers to be found anywhere. (...) I must go now—my daughter is calling to be changed—and I'm going to do it gritting my teeth.
Immacolata
The Void She Left
I am the mother of Francesca, a beautiful angel whom Jesus called back on Christmas Eve. The emptiness she left behind is immense, but we try to move forward for her sake and for the two other children the Lord has blessed us with. I am sending word of her memory and... if you are able, please publish it in the magazine. I will remain a subscriber.
Anna Maria Bonci
How Hard It Is to Understand
Thank you for the latest issue of the magazine! Thank you for all the profound truths in every article, united by one theme: "these disabled children who cannot speak." My Francesca says yes by lifting her eyes and no by lowering them. But how many questions I must ask to glimpse what she is trying to tell me about so many different things!
When I do manage to understand her thoughts, the joy is enormous for both of us, and for a moment I forget the difficulty and the anxiety. I wanted to tell Immacolata, the mother from Molise, that her daughter's crying might be caused by canker sores, which—even small ones—are terribly painful and sometimes dentists can't detect them, because it's hard for our children to hold their mouths open wide. It happened to us.
Gabriella Grossi
We Bear Witness
Peace and blessings!
As an affiliated monastery of the Fede e Luce community in Mondovì, we received and read your magazine with joy. It has made us aware of many painful family situations—yet lived with faith and courage. We urge you to continue publishing, and we are happy to send you other addresses to receive copies of the magazine. We are Poor Clare sisters, and we feel called to offer our own lives in prayer for the families most affected by what our Father Saint Francis of Assisi would call "sister infirmity." Moreover, we are witnesses to the power that disabled people and their parents have to evangelize anyone who meets them with a simple, open, and free heart. These are the little ones of the Gospel who reveal to us the things of our heavenly Father—hidden from the wise and learned of this world.
The Poor Clare Sisters of Vicoforte