Brazil and Mexico

The Fruits
of an Education
In June, July, and September, Fr. Carrón met with groups of the Movement in two countries of Central and South America. During the meetings and dialogues, there emerged a life that has become history, involving an increasing number of people and realities in the context of an experience, in an unexpected flowering of works born thank to AVSI that make the experience better and more human. The following pages report on the two trips

Brazil
by Isabella Alberto

Divided into five geographic regions that are very different from each other, Brazil is a country of gigantic dimensions, with a bit over 170 million inhabitants, where the contrast between rich and poor is very marked. Here, over 40 years ago, a seed of new humanity was planted with the arrival, in 1962, of the first of Fr. Giussani’s friends who came to serve the Church in Belo Horizonte. As the years passed, other friends came, and got involved primarily in the university. The Movement grew and today is present in 28 cities, reaching all of the various social levels. But, as in the beginning, the capacity to generate works that deal with poverty and social injustice are only born by placing Christ at the center.

Salvador de Bahia
The most striking moment of Fr. Carrón’s visit was certainly the inauguration of the “Monsenhor Luigi Giussani” nursery school in Salvador, presided over by Governor Paulo Souto (see box) at the Bay of Ribeira Azul, where a re-urbanization project is underway to enable 33,000 families to leave their pile-dwellings for real houses. The project, financed by the World Bank (WB) and the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry (Mae), has yielded such results that it is considered a model for Brazil and a showcase for the world. What made the difference, in a region that had already received various interventions, to no avail, was the application of a new method: the centrality of the person, doing things together, and positivity. This is the great contribution of Fr. Giussani: having taught us this method.
In Salvador, Fr. Carrón visited three works: the Novos Alagados nursery school, which welcomes children ages 0 to 6; the John Paul II Educative Center, which offers after-school programs for older children; and the Family Orientation Center, which helps youth and adults find work through professional formation courses and small work cooperatives. These works were born from some who, from the simple gesture of charitable work, sought to respond systematically to the needs they had seen. Fr. Carrón met with Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, Archbishop of Salvador and Chairman of the Episcopal Conference, who greeted him with great enthusiasm and expressed profound gratitude for the presence of the Movement in his diocese. That evening, in the Congress Hall of the Fiesta Hotel, an assembly of all the friends of the Movement, and others, was held. Many wished to meet the Spanish priest. About 230 people participated, among them some members of the communities of Fortaleza, Cruz das Almas, and Vitória da Conquista, who had traveled hundreds of miles to come to this meeting, as well as priests and friends from other charisms who accepted the invitation. Everyone was impressed above all by the simplicity of Fr. Carrón, who repeatedly affirmed that he had come to share the most important thing there is: the presence of Christ. “Life is decided when we let ourselves be educated, touched by the real. John and Andrew experienced life in an incomparable way because they let themselves be touched by that exceptional presence, a presence that corresponds. For us, it is the same experience, in the morning when we open our eyes, and the baby is crying, when we go to work, when we have a headache, or when we’re bored. We are always in contact with the real. The real is the true ally of life.”

Belo Horizonte
In Belo Horizonte, Fr. Carrón met again Rosetta Brambilla, one of the first Italians to arrive in Brazil (see Traces, Volume 7, No. 2 [February] 2005), coordinator of three nursery schools–Jardim Felicidade, Dora Ribeiro, and Etelvina Caetano de Jesus–which welcome 313 children between the ages of 0 and 6 who live in situations of risk or have been abandoned. There is also a social-educational center–Centro Alvadora–that offers courses in theater, music, computer science, artisanship, and recreational activities to the 240 youths ages 6 to 15 who attend this after-school center. These young people and Cristina and the other educators have begun a beautiful friendship, and many of the youth are beginning to participate in the little group of middle school students.
Another work created to respond to a need is that of Casa Novella, founded in December 2001, to host children ages 0 to 6, in situations of personal or social risk, or victims of domestic violence. The Casa Novella team is also active in psychosocial service for the families of origin, to help them overcome the situation and ease the child back into his family setting. Last year, this work was awarded recognition by the Abrinq Foundation for its methodology: realism, reasonability, and morality!
Fr. Carrón also had the opportunity to visit the newly opened Virgilio Resi Center, inaugurated in October 2005, on the occasion of the third anniversary of the death of Fr. Virgilio (a missionary priest in Brazil since the 1980s), but already functioning, with 50 students divided into two classes for training as gardeners and waiters. When they were told Fr. Carrón was a friend of Fr. Virgilio, the young people immediately engaged in talking with him and asking him questions, for example, about the choices to make in life. Fr. Carrón invited them to compare everything with the exigencies of the heart, giving them this example: “Are the shoes you’re wearing comfortable or not? Only you can say.” Next, Fr. Carrón went to meet Fr. Pigi Bernareggi, one of the very first to leave for Brazil, following the attraction of the encounter with Fr. Giussani. Fr. Pigi received him in his home, next door to the parish where he works, in the “1 de Maio” section of town. Pigi told him about the work he is doing with the community of the region to study the social doctrine of the Church, and about some new projects. He and Rosetta are building a nursery school to help the more needy families of that area. Also, with the help of the CL community of Turin, a computer center has been created for young people.
At the end of the day, at an assembly with the entire community, some singers and musicians presented Brazilian songs about the religious sense.

Rio de Janeiro
Another stop on Fr. Carrón’s trip to Brazil was the “wonderful city.” Here too, with Bishop Filippo Santoro of Petropolis, he had a meeting with the community and friends, attended by more than 450 people. Many had worked to spread the news about this meeting, and the Cardinal of the city, Eusebio Oscar Scheid, excusing himself for his absence, sent a telegram: “May God bless ever more the evangelizing and community-building mission of the Movement of Communion and Liberation, especially in the midst of young people, who seek Christ, often without knowing it.” Unfortunately, Fr. Carrón could not visit the two nursery schools that AVSI maintains in a very violent favela of Copacabana, called Morro dos Cabritos; in these schools, families can find a safe place to entrust their children. There is also the Educative Center for adolescents, with an after-school program. Only a passion for the life of children, adolescents, and their families can sustain such an attentive gaze upon their needs, one that promotes their development. And thus, every week, the employees, the majority of whom live in the favela, meet together with some parents for School of Community.

São Paulo
Fr. Carrón’s journey ended with the visit to two new groups of friends in the city of São Paulo, people who bring many experiences and great richness, and who have recognized in the charism “the road to the one point that can take away the sadness, fear, and tiredness of their daily toils: Jesus Christ alive, present in the companionship of friends,” as Fr. Carrón said to them.
The first group is in the western area of the city. Here, Cleuza and Marcos Zerbini (see Traces Volume 7, No. 7 and No. 8 [July/August and September] 2005) organized a big lunch to welcome Fr. Carrón. He thanked them for the charity with which they move. “We’re here to serve you,” he never tired of repeating. The Zerbini’s presented him with a plaque thanking him for his visit and his dedication to the Lord.
On the other side of the city, in the extreme eastern area, Fr. Ticão waited for Fr. Carrón together with a little group from his community, “health agents,” welfare workers, and volunteers who help Fr. Ticão in the region of Ermelino Matarazzo, where he is parish priest and one of the great popular leaders. This area hosts about 2 million people, and Fr. Ticão’s parish alone serves 30,000 inhabitants.
Fr. Ticão presented the progress of construction work for the new Center for Recovery and Nutritional Education (CREN). The work, sponsored by the National Bank for Social Economic Development, with the help of AVSI, the government of the state of São Paolo, and of other private institutions, is located alongside a big favela, where the people live in extreme poverty. The inauguration should occur at the end of the year, when many families will be able to use the services offered. Fr. Carrón visited the new church of Saint Francis that Fr. Ticão is building. He also visited the community of the Keralux Garden, which, with the help of some friends of the Movement, has been holding a study group on The Risk of Education with the educators of the region and a cooperative of tailors. These artisans have developed their production to the extent that this year they “exported” some bags to the Meeting in Rimini.
An assembly was also organized in São Paolo, with the friends of CL, 400 people who filled the auditorium to listen to Fr. Carrón respond to some questions that concern our daily life: the absence of hope, the toil… “I haven’t come to replace you, but to give you the method that will help you find the answers.”

Manaus and Brasilia
In addition to these communities visited by Carrón, two others in Brazil should be described. In Manaus, one of the first cities Fr. Giussani visited in the 1960s, the Queen of the Apostles Agricultural School hosts young people, the majority of whom are indigenous, and teaches cultivation of the land and artisanship as income sources. Brasilia was the place where one of the events that most influenced the Brazilian community happened. In 1992, a street kid, Edimar, met a teacher from the Movement, and gradually came to the decision to change his life. Two years later, after having declared to his gang leader, “I won’t kill any more,” Edimar was murdered. Out of his gesture, a Memores Domini home and the Nossa Senhora Mãe dos Homens nursery school have flowered into existence, and the Edimar Center is under construction, to offer professional courses and after-school programs for adolescents, precisely out of the desire to embrace and accompany other street kids like Edimar.
All this is only a small sampling, so to speak, of the many miracles that the Spirit, through Fr. Giussani’s charism, has brought about in Brazil. In these times of political uncertainty, with a grave crisis in the government, the presence of Fr. Carrón, with his personal testimony and his sure words, has been of great help to us in holding onto what enables us to not lose hope: Christian education. Hope does not disappoint.