It was a beautiful sunny morning a few months ago. And something was about to happen—something we wish would happen more and more often in the future, something that would become "normal," as we say with a word whose inadequacy and ambiguity stand out at Fede e Luce more clearly than anywhere else.
Conny arrived at an ordinary church in Foggia wearing an ordinary white dress, and as is ordinary, Pino was waiting for her—the groom, impeccable in his satin vest. A traditional southern Italian reception followed, lasting nearly twelve hours. Yet everyone felt that something extraordinarily moving was happening. "My struggle ends here," Conny said when she told everyone, with the courage that comes from a clear heart, about the "no"s she had received from her own family right up until the day before the wedding, about the financial difficulties they would have to face, about the bureaucratic obstacles that anyone must overcome when they unite not just their futures but their incomes as well. That struggle had served these two strong people—Pino, with a shattered family behind him, fragile health, and both physical and psychological limitations; Conny, with a body worn down and a fearless mind—to overcome the refrain that "you'll never make it alone," "you can see each other whenever you want, so why do you need to get married?", "everyone has difficulties in marriage, so imagine what it will be like for you!"
"We know that marriage is an achievement and not everyone can reach it," Conny and Pino tell us. "But we believe that with God, all things are overcome, and we knew we could do it. So many people helped us—people in the groups we belong to, starting with the Fede e Luce community in Foggia, but also from outside it. We couldn't have done it alone." They tell us that the bishop encouraged them, and something even greater happened: they managed to share their story with Pope Francis at the edge of a Wednesday audience. At that time, Pino was battling serious health problems, and he is certain that the Pope's blessing helped him in every way.
No one was happier than they were on their wedding day, but from their accounts, you can sense that their happiness is, in some way, a collective feeling. They reached marriage because so many people walked alongside them—not only those who supported them emotionally and encouraged them to keep going, but also those who gave them practical advice about housing, bills, disability pensions, and caregiving allowances. In short, everyone who had the will and patience to listen to them. "To parents, but also to friends and organizations," Conny keeps saying, "I ask: don't say 'no' right away when two people like me and Pino ask to get married. I understand that 'no' is your way of protecting us, but it's the wrong way. It's a prison, not protection. Instead, I ask you to understand what we desire and to walk with us through everything we need to do." The story of these two lovers from Foggia is, in the end, a story about listening and accompaniment—about a love that cannot win on its own but needs something more. In the end, it's the story of Fede e Luce communities themselves, captured in a few hours of a beautiful sunny morning a few months ago.