Luca Fortunato.
They are recorded as “socio-assistance of reception” for “homelessness”. But they are much more. Because they are not just spaces where people without accommodation can find it- and obviously without distinction of sex, I believe, ethnic groups … together with the bed, a shower, a good meal, in the “huts of Bethlehem”- one of the different realities of the association of the community Pope John XXIII community founded by Don Oreste Benzi- the guests, all the time in which they remain, always find what they often warn the most terrible absence. That is, someone to talk to, share experiences, shake friendships. And maybe start building a different future. Today, the “huts of Bethlehem” (so called by Don Benzi remembering what had happened to Maria and Giuseppe in search of hotel), are seven in Italy and three others in Russia, Albania and Bolivia. The first was opened in 1987 in Rimini. The people who come to us, often together with the volunteers of the so -called “street units” who went to look for them, meeting them in the stations, under the bridges, inside improvised shelters (“When the poor are not looking for us, we have to go and look for them “this is the mandate), not only can they find here for periods of months or more that family they have never had, from which they have moved away, or who have rejected them; But also the possibility of getting out of marginalization conditions through tailor -made social reintegration paths.
In Chieti, where the “hut” stands in the center in a large building, once the school complex of the Orsoline (they donated by them to Archbishop Bruno Forte and by these in turn made directly to the “Pope John XXIII community”), we meet Luca Fortunato. For over twenty years he has made the choice of the poor, convinced – he says-If you choose the poor you will have joy, truth, peace“, And that”The secret of happiness lies in sharing with the last “. He is here as responsible since the opening on September 8, 2014 “a date choice “- remind us-“on the feast of the Nativity of Mary to entrust this place to her where to make our proximity to those who do not know where to bang your head“. “A place“- continue-“ DWhere we certainly provide services, but leveraging the construction of relationships “. The goal? “Making those who come to be with us from solitude come out, which it is, I have the proof of it after years of experience, the heaviest form of poverty …“. Luca, born in 1981, professional educator and coordinator of educational socio-health communities, married to Cecilia, a daughter “generated in love “ (term with which it translates the word “adoption”) and an incoming creature (“In early June“), Native of Barletta and fascinated by Bishop Tonino Bello and by San Francesco by adolescence, a volunteer with Unitalsi for many years, in 2004 while traveling the path of Santiago de Compostela he decided to go on a mission. Hence the meeting with Don Benzi and a period in Africa, in Zambia, then the return to Italy determined to continue in “A life commitment“With what he calls”My brothers“, That is, the poor for which- confides-“Many times, very young, I dreamed of opening a hotel in Lussor”. Chieti’s “hut” is not, but it does not seem to be lacking in what is necessary – also thanks to the help of the diocesan Caritas – and makes it truly hospitable: from the family atmosphere to environments of sober beauty (including hats, where mass is celebrated and adoration is being made every day).
Something that over the years has been appreciated by those who have enjoyed it, and by those who live here today. In this period the guests present are seventy -three. On their shoulders disparate stories, partly similar to others told by Luca in his book “The mathematics of love“(Edizioni always) where the protagonists are unaware collaborators of God, to whom they lent face and voice, reverbing love on love. Examples? “Separate fathers who remained without work, women victims of violence, even with children, families under executive eviction, street children with psychic pathologies, elderly people with physical disabilities, people who ended up on the road with insufficient social safety nets to pay a rent buy food, medicines“, Explains Luca. And he adds: “We also welcomed people with addictions, but in this case to accompany them in special structures, ready to welcome them after the necessary treatment periods.“.” In short, people who ended up on the road also for insufficient social shock absorbers, without the possibility of paying a rent, to cure themselves … a drama in many areas of our country. Their days in the hut respect a program agreed at the entrance. Told in summary more or less this: “Breakfast at 8, moment of prayer in compliance with every religion, cleaning of the rooms, workshops based on the attitudes of each: in carpentry, in the kitchen, in porter or evacuation work, giving the most beautiful things we recover to other poor … “. The gift as a rehabilitation gesture? “Sì, especially, as a way of having gratuitousness experience to those who have lost everything, but what replies, so to speak, the scheme of Christ. Having said that we want our friends to also regain a family everyday life. In addition to the work commitments we share moments of leisure, we go to the cinema, in the pizzeria, to the sea, in the mountains, sing, play, we walk we go out, here we are right in the center … “.
And the locals? How do you see you? Luca replies: “Well, the times when, at the beginning, the war made us are far away. Now it loves it, she knows us. Large part of the volunteers is from here … the Chietini bring us things. Socialize. Administrations collaborate. Everyone understood that we just want to do good. As our Archbishop says that he often comes to visit us, ours is also the story of a small miracle in the heart of the city“. This small miracle also continues to be thanks to the many young people who decide to have an experience at the hut or to go to meet the homeless on the streets together with the other volunteers of the “Pope John XXIII”. “Thanks Luca, thank you really to you and your boys, to everything you do in that wonderful place, to the beauty that you cultivate every day, to the people you grow up and that I imagine make you grow every day … thanks because you taught me to split in life, in the footsteps of Jesus and the healthy and very powerful friendship that fills the heart and helps on the way ..:“, Reads the message signed by a seventeen year old after days of sharing to the” hut “. And in another signed by a twenty -seven year old we find written: “Hi Luca! … You know I wanted to share a thought that at a month of returning from a lively and true experience like the one lived in a hut, he checked me very much … not only I was well and I learned to share a little more what I often carry only on my shoulders, but I discovered the enormous power that the ‘poor’ have that scopre poorer than them. I, who in everything I have always wanted to be great and higher than everyone, for a moment I appreciated the infinitely small and fragile being, to look at others with new eyes feeling brothers, friends. But the great revelation for me was to bring this gaze to the house where I live, in a special family who, however, I never understood and accepted to the end …“.
