Not even a priest to chat, he complained desolate Adriano Celentano in a sunny and shabby suburban summer. Just because it was summer, and the priests were certainly on vacation with the boys of the oratory. Alreadythe oratory. A place to pray, according to the intentions of San Filippo Neri, in the community of religious and lay people. But it was San Giovanni Bosco, in Turin, to bring together the street boys to pray and then to chat, play, be together, grow in faith. Under the canopy on a lawn, a Valdocco, The poorest kids, exploited workers, often without a family, found a father and brothers.
Since then the oratory has spread as an educational method throughout Italy. Resist, despite the increasing distance from ecclesial experience, despite priests are scarce, the essential reference of the oratory, Which is not a game room or a philanthropic association. It’s a house, Where you learn to share, to observe the rules, first of all the commandments and the first commandment of the Gospel, to love God and the neighbor.
But The speakers do not ask for cards of religious, political, social belonging. They only ask you for the name and you are at home too. I participated in the launch of presentation of the Open doors ban promoted by the Cariplo Foundation and from many community foundations, in the area, to support the speakers. Only in Lombardy are there about 2,600. TO Rome a holy man, Arnoldo Canepa, He has dedicated all his existence to found and directing oratories and was born the cor, Roman oratories center, real principals of humanity.
For this reason, civil society realizes their role, in the city and in small towns, and understands that it needs, to include, guide too many Framed teenagers. It is not only a good heart that moves banks, entrepreneurship and public authorities, but intelligent realism.
On which educational alliances can you count to form the boys? The familyless and less. The school, leopard spot. Some sports clubbut to train future samples. And the others? In the parishes, on the other hand, there are many spaces, there are heads and hands and heart to encourage creativity, following the signs of the times. The pitch with the ball it is always good, but they are also born Cooking workshops, art, Italian school for foreigners, after -school and then branches for the use of the largest, centers with psychologists and pedagogists. Little by little the Network of services widens to Moms in difficulty, to younger children who do not find a place at the nest, to the elderly. In the oratory they return to live, to feel useful with their wealth of experience and humanity, with the listening ability that the boys no longer find. Good will therefore but also a necessary specific training: one does not improvise to compete with much more attractive areas, the language of teenagers must be known and knowing how to dialogue. The most is a gift: when with a priest or a nun, a mother or a dad, an unforgettable match takes place, who open the meaning of living you. Then the most difficult and closed boys and alone change and learn to smile, to make real friendships, not just virtual.
(Photo above: Giovanni Panizza)
