The silent dialogue
your blog readers to suggest that the testimony of Don Claudio Miglioranza included in the book" Memory glimpsed reality ", edited by Olivo Bolzon and Marisa Restello , GM editor 2008, pp. 120, € 10.00. This volume is inserted in the series Questions of identity" and is distributed by Tredieci Ponzano Veneto (tel. 440 031 0422 - fax 0422 963835).
SILENT DIALOGUE
talks to Don Claudio IMPROVED
Cananzi Giulia (1)
[ Don Claudio improved at San Vito d'Altivole, August 26, 2008 ]
inside but outside. But with the parish over the parish with the Church but on its margins, but with God through men, but among the people with the last, but in the city and the suburbs. A life you can not scan in a few words, yet those who know Don Claudio Miglioranza knows that these are his horizons. It is almost natural, therefore, expect to find his house in the territory of Castelfranco Veneto, but at its boundaries, dispersed among the last intact tissues of the Venetian countryside. 'For a little - said Claudia, pointing at an invisible line through the windshield of the car, along the horizon of red earth - there will build a bypass. " A note without further comment, that hides a little 'homesick. Although he did not admit it. He does not like to expose the feelings or talk of this man with white hair and beard long, a little 'Beethoven, a little' Isaiah, a little bear 'and some' grandfather, strange, painful life. The old house stands naked in the square of the plots. The winter has planed each crop and the damp earth rests. Then, the paved road ends, continue a path properly in place, the last part is the festival of the hole: "Our road is not under the care of the City - apologizes - and we, as maintainers are not that great." The other figure is its irony, the ability to demystify and to laugh even of themselves and their choices. Pull the brake, we arrived. When getting off your feet leave footprints in the mud compact, greenish interrupted by tufts of grass. To the left of the hen house, in front of the house on the ground floor houses a small workshop in bookbinding. "It's my kingdom. Bound and shelter books. I am the last remaining priest works'. He says with a hint of pride mixed with nostalgia. Like a patriarch at sunset or the last of the Mohicans. Notices it and smiles. The door a bell like the ones that mark time in monasteries and a crucifix in wrought iron, with limbs protruding from the rush of matter. Campanella and crucified, and the faith community that is embodied: the symbols are never by accident. In the small living room is a strange quiet, three Senegalese greeted politely and to sink back into silence. In another dining room, head down, fast
a long rosary beads of white, while the most vocal of all, Cheihk - will be granted a couple of short jokes - is cooking for the crew. "We speak we speak, they shut up. Have been together for years, yet they do not know many things about each other. From them I learned that not only communicate with words. Too bad kitchen so bad. They all have a stomach ache but continue to make sauces hallucinating. " He does it to provoke, phlegmatic Cheihk smiles and continues to burn the remaining feathers of a chicken leg on the flame. "Look, do not speak. So I came to ask them if I'm hosting them or if they are to accommodate me. " Cheihk ventures out of the silence and the bar with his Italian a bit 'nasal' You know. Are we that we host you. " Claudio has chosen to live with seven Senegalese done so for decades. "They belong to a fraternity very observant Muslims, the Mourid, another world for me to discover. " From the anthropological point of view is very interesting but the basic question remains: there is a Catholic priest with seven Muslims superosservanti and quiet, secluded in a country house with an iron cross on the door? We settle in the small bookbinding for the interview. Claudio did a little 'space on the large work desk full of papers and newspaper articles. The order must not be his forte. Behind us the old stove crackles around the smell of smoke and memories.
[ Don Claudio to Don Silvio Favrin in San Vito d'Altivole, 26 agosto 2008 ]
«Credo che la mia storia sia il paradigma di un’epoca. Ero in Seminario quando mi sono trovato a respirare l’aria del Concilio Vaticano II, la sua apertura al mondo ma anche le sue contraddizioni. A volte ero diviso tra l’obbedienza agli stimoli della Chiesa, audace in certi documenti, e la sua prudenza nell’applicazione. Ero entrato in Seminario nel 1954, sulla scia di altri compaesani. Se mi giro indietro mi faccio tenerezza da solo. Ero un tipo imbranato, senza infamia e senza lode. Non ho mai coltivato virtù eroiche ma neanche eccessiva trasgressività. Credo che la mediocrità mi abbia salvato dalla rigida disciplina del Seminario, dove si dava the voting on "care" and "walking". In high school I was not being clarified vocation. I squeezed neurotically the brain and the soul before the Blessed Sacrament: "Lord, what do you want from me?". But nothing. The answer came to me from inside, as I expected, but from the outside. She did not come for me but for the world. It was my Copernican revolution. A shock, an epiphany. The Church was not only Treviso but it was the universal one. The great Council has invested me like a river in flood. It was no longer possible to love God without loving man. "
But if you were a no heroic virtues, what happened to you?
"I wonder too. So I do not understand the flight into pure spiritualism and the lack of passion of many young priests who luckily they survived the vote on the walk. Certainly from there started my labor. Long but exciting, painful, at times, but always accompanied by the joy of giving oneself. " At that time, the experience of the Italian bishops opened Fidei Donum and for Latin America Theological Seminary of Verona, which Claudio has requested to join, now no longer any doubt as to his vocation. Then, in the starting 70 for Argentina. It was the first real encounter with the vast world and poverty.
How did it go?
"The Argentina upset me life. It was not just poverty that we have caused, it was the injustice done to the system. I have lived all military dictatorship, until Videla. I had gone to live in a villa miseria, a shanty town, the pleasant name "Garden", that garden. There was nothing but poverty, there was fear, uncertainty, tension. The guerrillas burned in the ashes, while the authorities were living with the specter of communism. " People strong experience which had been merged with an ecclesial experience challenging, that the priests of the Third World, after the bishops' conference of Medellin (1968), in which the Church had stood up for the disadvantaged and their struggles. "The priests worked in the Third World villas miserias - Claudio continues - some have disappeared during the dictatorship: from them I learned the passion and loyalty to the people. Although today I smile a bit 'of this concept: it means people? I lived there, but their internal suffering, their difficulties with the hierarchy, their attempt to build from below the foundations of the Church. "
And what did you chose for you?
"After thinking it over and restrained the urge to do the typical missionary's part of what fixes, I decided two things: I would not own nothing, I'd been looking for understanding, I would have added little by little in their lives and together we built the Church, which is made up of men and women first and then the walls. So I started to attend the Board of the district, the association of parents of elementary school, the meetings organized by a clinic. The second thing is that I decided that I would work, just like my parishioners. I wanted to keep as long as the people themselves did not feel the need to support my service. I dreamed
a church that was fixed from the bottom. So, I put pen to paper and wrote to my friends in Italy, "Do not blame me but I think I give up your financial aid." But there is help and also finished the match. "
Who made you do?
"My choice, I promise to live a normal life, I tried to deny everything that could easily, which could put a distance, almost a form of power between them and me. Today, even that sounds conceited because I choose poverty as there is never born.
I remember an episode: I worked with shovel y pico (with pick and shovel), as they say there, to make a drain, at some point, the other worker, a young Argentine, said: "It is convenient to the curita trabajador (the little priest worker) when you can do without. " It was awful. But on the other hand, get to eat together at noon on degraded and one of the greatest satisfactions in life. "
The local church support you?
"Let's say that the Bishop had some difference of opinion. I was still a priest that looked like a priest, who had no church or aspire to build a brick and that, moreover, worked. So I decided not to have an official work and this was a grace. Why I started to really live like the inhabitants of the district I worked from time to time, I installed the plumbing or sewage with a friend Paraguayan persecuted for political reasons. "
And people?
"By the time I have felt like one of them. Indeed, in the darkest moments, I felt safe only inside the villa miseria, where others would not have even dreamed of setting foot. A passport that I had won on the field. "
[ Marisa Restello, curator - with Don Olivo Bolzon - the book "Memory of reality glimpsed" ]
Why did you leave?
"The Bishop had put me together with a priest of the Third World, Pablo, a Spaniard. I bonded with him. When Bishop decided to move, I went to ask him why. Even so I was following the rules. And there has been a scene almost comic: I accused himself, and he defended me. I've decided to leave, but there I must do so in accordance with the bishop. "
within the Church but outside. One who speaks to you has this feeling.
"Fidelity to the outcast drags you out of the normal fees. I believe that the Church, like any human institution, has inevitably its contradictions. But I am sure of being faithful and obedient to its demands. "
What regret that experience in Argentina?
"was not able to see the fruits of that working with people. "
What did you remain in the bag?
"The villa misery delivered me, gave me the realization that life can be lived one day at a time and that in reality it takes very little to live it fully."
In 1976 you came back in Italy: what have you found?
"It was a very vibrant period in our history. A Castelfranco Veneto was a group of priests who would meet every week to carry out work in common. A very powerful experience. But I was back at the beginning with my arrogance of thinking missionary heading to Brazil: I already had an agreement with a small community of brothers. Do not aspired to a place of pastor, I wanted a life of communion with people. But then I realized that this experience was unique Venetian priests: there was a great sharing, decisions were acquired together, not by the Bishop was never alone. Gradually I realized that I could perform my mission here. And so I returned to live with my parents, feeling strange after nearly seven years of misery villa. And I started to be a plumber with my brother. "
Do your parents understand your reasons?
"I never really understood." The memory is veiled tenderness and Claudio start screens. "You the story but not write, is not important. One day my father told me: "With all you have to do what it takes to work?". I told him: "Dad, I remember that when the mother said, 'sti working poor priests as' you say,' that none come to the ovens, presses to and see what it means to work." Then he said: "I understood and below, but I no lo Faria." He did not say anything anymore. But for me that "he understood and below" has a huge significance. My father worked in a factory, I was the family intellectual. At home I was dressed for the occasion. I confess I felt a burden. I am grateful to my not having to never did weigh the difference. "
therefore wanted a life of community, outside the parish but also in connection with the parish, as you have made?
"I've talked a lot with the other priests I felt supported and validated by the group. Until one day the senior pastor of Loreggia, Don Antonio Serafin, said, "are you convinced? So share! ". And I came to this house to rent, it was 1978. Looking back I do not know if I would have the courage to do it again. At this point I came up again the same problem I had in Argentina: What do I do now? To what extent can we priests share in the life of the people? Among other things here too I was an anomalous figure: I was a priest without a parish, but he celebrated Mass in the parish, who worked and had a soft spot for shady people. "
And you open the doors of this house to toxic. Why?
"Why was the drug problem in those days, a new phenomenon. The first drugs were committed people who came from church groups but also by constant struggle or groups. The drug was seen as an alternative form of socialization, a search path. In the bottom of my community was also an alternative. "
The local church has agreed with this as your choice?
"Did well received from the first moments though not in official form. The bishop then, Mistrorigo Antonio, a few weeks of my community, took advantage of a meeting of priests in the area to address questions about the drug problem and ask me how I was. This was his endorsement. "
What to look for this experience?
"I wanted to understand: I thought that the marginalization of drug addicts were marginalized by the rich and the people of villas miserias marginalization of poor, in fact, the exclusion is always poor devils in every latitude. Only at that time did not know. So I refused to call the experience "therapeutic community" and I naively called "community of life." It was a resounding failure. To try to do life together with junkies is self-defeating. We drink the blood, you drain your energy. You can never count on their honesty, you should always strive to read between the lines. "
When did you realize that it could not work?
"While I kept my lofty speeches in a toxic community told me:" I came here because I have a drug problem, do not ask read many books. " Hit and sunk. I sadly have to agree that the only way out was go to a therapeutic community, where it is now clear, do not share anything. We continued for 10 years, but we had neither the staff nor the appropriate environment. I closed my exhaustion. It was an experience of one thick enormous human but scientifically untenable. But there I experienced the depths of human exclusion. "
A chapter closed, your compass as a missionary brought you into contact with another exclusion, that of foreign immigrants. How did you ran?
"Through another priest, Giuliano Vallotto that time was in 1987, deals with the reception of the first immigrants. He asked me to accept a few. It seemed to me an interesting opportunity. I was excited to know a new world, rich and primordial. And maybe I was a bit 'presumptuous: after all I've ever been to America, I! I was fascinated by Islam, its direct relationship with God and then the idea of \u200b\u200ba different community life, enriched by other cultures. Thus came the first three Senegalese, who in turn called other Senegalese. At an altitude of seven I said stop. I did not want to make a host community, I wanted to live with them. "
I think even this time it went exactly according to your expectations.
"Well, I had a mania for cultural exchange. They had simply need a roof and a job. I wanted to speak for their culture are silent. And then there's the huge language barrier. Our partnership is based on the share of expenditure and live together. "
you have ever asked you about your religion or whether you're a priest?
"No, and I believe that my religion did not understand much. Only once a marabou , their imam, he asked a blessing. End of interreligious relations. "
So what is the value of this experience?
The discovery of the true essence. They live on very little. The few words are part of their frugality. I wanted to communities, exchange experiences, but they are well aware of being here only need to keep their wives and children. We always cover our feet on the ground. You might also want to make a fool: if people invites you to dinner are able to stop and answer all'antipasto rather dryly, "so I have enough, thank you." From them I learned the meaning of Ramadan, which is a great exercise in discipline. And I realized that fasting is
done for those suffering from hunger, chi mangia tanto è solo una terapia. Per loro il mezzo di interazione non è la parola e il luogo per comunicare non è la tavola imbandita come spesso è da noi. I senegalesi mangiano insieme da un unico piatto in soli dieci minuti. La comunicazione avviene dopo, finito il pasto: per questo le cerimonie del tè sono infinite ai nostri occhi. Stare con loro significa sperimentare altri spazi dell’essere».
Mentre Claudio conclude la frase, percepisco che tra loro non c’è solo una muta conoscenza, c’è un affetto profondissimo, di cui non parlerebbero mai. Ne ho la conferma quando Fallou appare, claudicante, coi capelli bianchi che rigano i fitti ricciolini. «Come stai Fallou?» chiede Claudio. "I'm pretty well" he says. "As usual, says he is right," replies Claudius, "that goes without saying that I'm wrong?" Concludes the Senegalese, then greeted politely and walks away. "It is terrible - I said Claudio - he had a bad accident at work, when I knew I fell upon the world. Since then he has undergone many operations, it has never recovered. It is here as a soul suspended:
is to continue to send money from the disability pension to his family but his heart is in Senegal. Those rare occasions when he can return home, is revived, it is to his feet despite the pain here and let his staff: Do not sell out never his dignity. "
It's late, it's time to go. Claudio goes to another room to take his coat. Cheihk unexpectedly released from his silence and dares the second phrase of the evening: "Claudio is a good man." Am a little 'surprise, look at him waiting for other words. Useless. He smiles and returns to silence. We climb into the car. Outside it's pitch dark, the mist in the valley flickering beams of light projected from lights. With the mind to the different stages of the story of Claudius in Argentina has been unable to enjoy the fruits of his labor, neither here has become the patron of a therapeutic community for drug addicts and now disagrees with the Senegalese word, as waited, but silence. It's like a sow generously, that he never asked anything for himself, the way to reach the final is not linear, it gives you check, you will always put into play. Claudio has done everything to enter the body and blood of the people, as his cross on the door, but most entered the field, picking fruit more intangible, imperceptible to the eye town.
Suddenly, as we move away, the house seems like a lighthouse and Claudio is his guardian. Around the Venetian countryside widens like a sea. That beacon to remind you that if you truly believe, Christ within the last with which you decide to break bread. Although it is a Muslim superosservante and quiet, that does not even know how to cook.
(1) GIULIA Cananzi (1966) is of Calabrian origin and adoption of Treviso. Degree in languages, is a journalist specializing on issues of international solidarity. From 1994 he worked in the drafting of the "Messenger of Saint Anthony," for which follows the themes of social morality. Collaborate with St. Anthony's Charities, an institution of international solidarity.
