“I discovered Pier Giorgio very late, in 1975, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death, and I was fascinated by it”. Wanda Gawronska, 95, dissolves the memories, in her home of Trastevere, in Rome, surrounded by the writings and photos of her mother’s brother. That for her is “Pier Giorgio, not uncle. Forever younger than me ».
How was that meeting?
«My mother Luciana wanted to take an exhibition of photographs on Pier Giorgio at the Palazzo del Comune, in Turin, and asked me, since I was photographed, to help her. I wondered how I could do since I didn’t know anything about his brother. Then I started reading and I was conquered. Since then I have followed it step by step. “
What fascinated it?
“All. Consistency, the ability to be so “normal”, to be what was without being different from all the young people we know, who go to university, who play sports, who study. And then, certainly his ability to always be where it was needed everywhere. This is the thing that still strikes me today: the presence. Whether it was the hospital, the prison, that the unions were, a strike, one who is dying or poor, he was there. I don’t know how he did, but really, in Turin it was everywhere. This fascinated me. And also the fact that he was a man full of faith, but without sweets ».
And what else?
«His way of being secular. Pier Giorgio was a precursor of the role of the laity that the Church will recognize, with the Second Vatican Council and the 1965 Apostolic Actuositem decree, only forty years later. Instead, he already senses that the lay person must be part of the church and must collaborate in everything with the hierarchy. And this is striking because it does so in such a modern way, but normal, according to the logic of Christianity, that it is still very current. I think it is for this reason that today the young people of the whole world consider him a street companion. “
What testimonies came from these young people?
«Many. With the Pier Giorgio Frassati Association we helped make it known abroad. Thanks also to my knowledge of many languages, I was able to have direct contact with these young people. The thing that strikes me is always the joy of these guys, their enthusiasm. Pier Giorgio is really a friend for them. Many come on a pilgrimage to Pollone, where there is the family villa, and discover this full life of his. To his friends of the time, but also to young people of all time Pier Giorgio continues to say that we must “live, do not live”. And there is no doubt that he lived his life fully, with this faith in Christ. I think he never did anything, including jokes, that he had not been dictated by the love of others and charity. His example today, in a world that lives of little girls, is that you can live big “
