On August 26th of this year, Dr. Robert (Bob) C. Gallo was a participant in the "Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples." Gallo, a professor at the University of Maryland, is an eminent scientist and discoverer of the AIDS virus, retroviruses, and interleukina-2. His presence was made possible by our friendship with Dr. Adolfo Turano, Director of the Institute of Microbiology at the University of Brescia (and Dr. Gallo's friend for many years). Gallo and Turano took part in the inauguration of the house for AIDS patients run by the C.A.S.A. cooperative in Perugia.Gallo started with his appreciation of the small positive experience of the C.A.S.A. house to arrive at the decision to experiment with the second-level AIDS vaccine in this little community. During the afternoon presentation, Gallo said that his life, from a religious point of view, is a sine curve, but at the moment, he said, "I'm looking for a person: Jesus Christ." As he visited the various pavilions of the fairgrounds where the Meeting was held, he continued to repeat, with an amazed expression on his face, "Unbelievable, unbelievable!" We were conscious of the poverty of our explanations about the Meeting in the face of the objective fact of a greater unity, the only true explanation for the incredible gathering he witnessed. He also told us that in the United States nothing of the sort had ever been seen (he didn't know whether to call it a conference, meeting, or a happening), but above all, he wondered what so many people who were so diverse in age and interests were doing there. We went out to dinner with him, Turano, and other friends. When we told him that one of us was about to adopt three children from Poland, of whom two are HIV-positive ( and thus might need him), Gallo said, "He is a fool!" (but at the same time he said he would be available for anything that was necessary). And so, speaking to him of realism and reasonableness, we explained that just as he, researching the influence of viruses on tumors, had come upon the unexpected in the AIDS virus, and had adhered to the evidence he had seen and moved the focus of his research onto this new fact, so also we had come upon something unexpected which had amazed us and to which we had adhered, in the circumstances that are a part of life. All this is realistic and reasonable. He thought about this, then said, "I understand." At dinner we also told him that this generates a gratuitousness which forms the basis for a friendship, and is something different from philanthropy. He agreed wholeheartedly also with this. He added that he had already begun to read the first of the two volumes of the PerCorso, The Religious Sense, that we had given him. At the end of the evening, after commemorative photographs, one of us asked him, "What did today mean for you?" And he wrote it down on a little piece of paper. Turano did the same, and addressed it to Fr. Giussani; Gallo added a postscript (see box). We plan to keep up a personal relationship with him, since the tools and occasions are not lacking. Gallo told us he awaits us in Baltimore. We feel that the thing that, struck Bob Gallo was a unity (which was evident also to us) between a people and a work, as something that was already there before and that was taking hold of him too. This showed us that Mystery wears our poor face. In fact, we had to note the fact that amazement sets in motion freedom and reason and lets loose knowledge, and that it is indispensable for each of us to explore ever more profoundly the reasons and even the consequences of this event that are most personal and concrete.

Dear Fr. Giussani:
Today's experience at the Meeting was unbelievable. I thought I was dreaming, surrounded by people from just a few years to ninety years old. Thanks for everything you have done, thank you for the Christian community and for the example that, through CL and the cooperatives, you are giving to believers and non-believers.
Adolfo Turano

Dear Padre,
Adolfo is, as usual, exacltly "on the target". I hope I meet you some day.
My warm regards.
Bob Gallo