latin america

This is not the report of a trip to Latin America, but the attempt to put some notes in order that I scribbled on a piece of paper during a dinner with Fr Giussani after I returned from the trip, the dinner in which I made my due–and desired–report to the one who sent me there.

The aim: to maintain the direction he wants to give things, and also to retain the greatest number of suggestions and specific indications–some concerning method, others more precise–that emerged. So that the reader can understand better, I have also had to refer to facts and situations that I was telling him about.

Edited by Mario Molteni

ARGENTINA
First of all, assistance for daily bread
In Argentina, as everywhere, we worked on the two letters, the one from the Pope for the twentieth anniversary of the Fraternity and your letter to all the members of the Fraternity. In Argentina, this is a very valuable moment for the life of the Movement; a generation of adults is coming of age that faces the situation by starting from what it has encountered. Some signs of this: the judgment made together concerning the country’s crisis; concrete aid given in the face of the grave economic hardships (many of our friends have lost their jobs; in front of the Italian, Spanish, and US consulates are endless lines of people who want to leave the country); Fraternity experiences are growing of people who want to live in accordance with what you indicated in the letter to the members; after years of gestation, we have decided to constitute a national center that will meet at least every month and will ensure that all our people follow a unitary path.

Giussani: In a situation like this, what’s needed first of all is assistance for daily bread. We have to awaken here in Italy an interest in things there, not limited to token aid: there must be an entering into concrete action, also to get our people there going. We have to enact an effort among us that leads to action and concrete support. Every gathering of the Responsibles in Italy must be for you an opportunity to point out the urgency in these nations.

In some cities the Food Bank is developing; it has already started in La Plata [capital of Grande Buenos Aires] and is getting started in Santa Fè [an important city in the north and home of the largest community in Argentina after Buenos Aires].

Giussani: Right, at a moment like this we have to help this kind of work.

One of the poorest neighborhoods in the area surrounding Buenos Aires revolves around a great work promoted by Fr Mario Pantaleo (a priest of Tuscan origin who died in 1992 in odor of sanctity), which includes a nursery school and schools of every level, a clinic, etc. Often on Sunday hundreds of people come there to ask for grace in the little church where Fr Pantaleo is buried. The concern of the lay people who lead the work is the continuity of the ideal thrust that lies at the origin of all the action. After seeking for a long time, they have identified in the Movement the experience of faith that could foster this continuity. Thus, they have asked us to work with them. Just recently, AVSI formulated a project that could ensure both economic and operative help. Since provision is made for involving Italian volunteers, the project could be the chance to send two people.

Giussani: Wonderful, this is something very important. And will it also be an opportunity for work for some of our Argentineans there?

Yes, in both the new project and the work as a whole, since they want people like us, with the necessary skills, to get involved in the various activities.

PERU
Do not let even one of the new relationships that arise be dropped
Our presence in Lima has a growing impact on the cultural context, as was demonstrated by the great event of the presentation of your book L’io, il potere, le opere [The “I,” the power, works]. In particular, the university founded at the behest of Bishop Panizza (the bishop of the new diocese which includes more than 2 million people, created a few years ago by detaching a section of the large diocese of Lima), where many of us collaborate, is becoming a driving force for the whole northern part of the city. Almost 900 new students enroll each year.

Giussani: This is a very great thing. Nowhere else in the world have we been given the opportunity to contribute in such a profound way to the development of a university!

Since initially the structure was capable of holding the students for three semesters, while running the ordinary administration we have to think about finding the funds, buying the land and building the necessary buildings to be able to take in the students of the following year.

Giussani: So what can we do?

First of all, we can send some people who, for example, could contribute to the university’s development in the scientific field.

Giussani: Certainly.

And then economic aid.

Giussani: Couldn’t the projects realized by the NGOs close to us contribute in this?

Yes. Another idea that came out: the time seems to have come to give a more permanent form to our presence on the social plane. Development of the Company of Works around those of us who are already most involved could have two basic advantages: it would render more organic the action of the various works and organisms present or that are about to be set up; and it would involve people who are not in the Movement who have been struck by our way of facing problems.

Giussani: Yes, I agree fully with the idea to develop the Company of Works in Peru. Realities like the Company of Works and AVSI could be a positive alternative to the leftist unions in Latin America!

A special encounter. The head of an important UN agency has met the experience of the Movement through one of our priests in Vienna. He has begun reading Si può vivere così? [Can You Live Like This?, by Giussani] (he reads it every day), which is opening up for him new perspectives on all of his life. On a recent trip to Africa, he had the opportunity to appreciate various works promoted by our friends, which gave him the desire to know also about our ongoing initiatives in Latin America. By happy coincidence we were able to meet in Lima. I hope that opportunities for collaboration can come about both in terms of businesses and of charitable works.

Giussani: Goodness! Send him my best regards and thank him. I urge you: we must not let even one of the relationships that arise from encounters like this be dropped.

BRAZIL
Serving the development of the unity of the people

In Brazil by now, our presence in society has become mature. The works promoted by our friends are appreciated by the UN, by the big international banks, and by local institutions because of their efficiency, and because they know how to merge with the situation and value the life and work of the people who benefit from what we offer. The World Bank is financing a big project to reduce poverty in a favela with 150,000 people and is very interested in our method. They want to understand why our friends work like this.

Giussani: The context of Latin America is one of the most interesting in the whole world for us.

The presentation of the book L’io, il potere, e le opere was everywhere–starting with Brasilia, where even the vice president and the Italian ambassador (who is very friendly to us) attended–a great opportunity for encounter and judgment. The idea emerged of having someone who is suited for it enter into political life.

Giussani: Certainly. Not as a conquest of power, but to serve, to develop the unity of the people.

Traveling about in Latin America, I read again what you said in Rio in 1992. I copied out two passages. The first was, “The world’s response to today’s Church is the tearing down of the authentic content of the Christian fact, the tearing down of the Church as event.” The second is Paschal and speaks of the passage from dream to miracle: “The claim of the original temptation is emptied out, is overcome only by the wonder of the miracle, since the miracle is the resurrection of Christ which, in accordance with the Father’s plan, opens a passageway through the darkness of time.”

Giussani: This could be the point of view from which to look at everything we have been saying.

ON THE RESPONSIBILITY
Giussani: In any case, you must keep three things in mind:

1. Have a clear list of those who work under you, your co-workers. It is a great fortune to have people working with you who combine spirituality with ability to get things done.

2. Foster development with attention to the economic works that enable it, taking into consideration all the needs and possibilities.

3. Imitate what Vittadini is doing in Italy: connections, judgments, collections of funds, and initiatives to get people involved.

The heart of the letter to the Fraternity after the letter received from the Pope lies precisely in the passage on “responsibility as a service of charity.” This is a tremendous call to the truth of one’s life.

PARTING WORDS
In any case, in all the countries where I went there is a great fervor of life and enormous gratitude to you!

Giussani: Not to me, but to Christ, because it is He who does everything. And we must be attentive to the tie with the bishops. The Pope’s letter is truly extremely important. It means: “We recognize what you are doing. What you are doing is Christianity.”

[Dinner was over and it was time to go.]

Giussani: We must pray to Our Lady and to St Joseph because all these things (works, etc) can fall apart in one day, if something happened.

[Then, turning to a member of the house, referring to a phrase that often comes up in conversation in this period, he said, “Repeat.”]

Grant serenity and security to our uncertain hearts.

Giussani: The Pope is for us precisely the image of this.