by Vittoria Prisciandaro
Plant almond trees because, in the dark and cold of winter, they are the first to flower and the last to bear fruit. He lives in a monastery, but remains a convinced diocesan priest, because, he says, “we are the new monks, between social commitment and silence”. He loves freedom – «it is the highest value. Only those who are free are capable of loving” – and for this reason he became a priest: “I fell in love with this liberating God. But, basically, I’m still the DJ I was at 18, you don’t change.”
Don Francesco Fiorillo is 48 years old. He is the custodian and manager of the Fraternity of the San Magno monastery in Fondi, in the province of Latina. He was a parish priest for 20 years and a diocesan assistant for Catholic Action. Fifteen years ago he was entrusted with this ancient monastery – founded in 522 on a site that had been bathed in the blood of Christian martyrs in the 3rd century – as a reception space.
“Come in, we were waiting for you” is the icon’s welcome at the entrance to the monastery. And it is the message that the flowerbeds, citrus groves and olive trees communicate, the wood and stones worked with creativity to tell passages from the Gospel, to set up alternative sessions, to arouse the desire to stop in silence, to let the gaze wander over the Lepini mountains and the greenery of the campaign.
It is among the ruined stones of the monastery where he came to play as a child with his friends from the village, that Don Francesco discovers a path that summarizes his life. «At 18 I felt I was immortal. Music had taken me around Europe and then to Africa, Brazil, India… The adrenaline I had, alone, was enough for me to go to the max. I’ve never used any drugs, I didn’t need them.” Not so the friends who accompanied him. The dearest one, during a rave, dies in his arms due to one too many pills. He locks himself in the house for a year: depression, darkness, emptiness.
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Read the complete interview with Don Francesco Fiorillo in the issue of Credere distributed in newsstands and religious bookshops from Thursday 31 October and in parishes from Saturday 2 November. Or purchase a digital copy www.edicolasanpaolo.it/scheda/credere.aspx
