[ad_1]
It was December 8, 1970 when don Andrea Gallo, celebrated his first mass in the small church of San Benedetto to Porto. Fifty years later, the priest who lived with the minimum is gone, but to keep alive the community born of his intuition, there are dozens of people who have walked in recent years with the “Rooster”, as always. called comrades and friends.
Today due to Covid there will be no party but at 11:45 there will be a live celebration on Facebook (from the page of Don Andrea Gallo) to thank all those who in these fifty years have made the history of a community that has left the poster not only in the city of Genoa, but also in the lives of thousands of people from all over Italy who have known it through its founder or passing through the Ligurian capital.
The community now has six hospitals between Genoa and Alessandria. drug addicts, former prostitutes, former prisoners, people seeking international protection, men and women who are in difficulties for various reasons. Not only. Make of San Benedetto to Porto a unique “place” is also the restaurant “Flashlight “ that gives work to the needy. And then there are the projects against trafficking and exploitation, against pathological gambling, social agriculture and much more.
In fifty years real “miracles” have been performed. A story that began with a “punishment”. In fact, Don Gallo had been expelled from the parish of Carmine in July by order of Cardinal Siri, concerned about the militancy of that uncomfortable priest and his preaching on the side of the little ones. Don Andrea at that time gave up the place that was offered to him on the island of Capraia and was received in San Benedetto al Porto by the then parish priest Don Federico Rebora.
Who remembers the history of the community more than anyone else is Liliana Zaccarelli, for all “Lilli”, right arm of Don Gallo. Every time you ask her for an interview, she never wants to appear, but then she gives in, aware of how important her story is: “Andrea – remember – she started living here and immediately welcomed the more desperate, without judgments and without distinctions. Whoever knocked on this door was always welcome ”. Lilli arrived in San Benedetto al Porto in 1983: “I still remember the The open arms by don Andrea. He said: If you want to walk with us, go ahead. The mistakes you made before should serve to avoid making them again ”.
As Liliana remained attached to the community, lived the most beautiful but also the hardest moments: “Without a doubt the most difficult period for me was when Andrea died, on May 22, 2013. She taught us to move forward with our legs but when a father dies …”. The founder’s collaborator does not look to the past, to what could have been achieved and what has not been done: “As a community you cannot and should not live with regrets, you must start over every morning. Some friends lost them, but were they really? Never judge the way people drink. The word community means sharing life with others, be it an hour a day or 24 hours ”. Fifty years of history served to understand one thing, not indifferent: “The important thing is to keep the door as open as possible. As Andrea said, welcome not to the last but to the last. “
[ad_2]
