Pope conveys a message of closeness to more than 500 poor people in AssisiSt. Francis of Assisi, a perennial saintLiving the experience of St. Francis of Assisi in the 21st centuryMatteo Curina comes from Pesaro, a city 60 km north of Pesaro. Loreto. With great simplicity he tells us that he grew up in a believing family. He entered the Franciscan friary in 2008, when he was only 24 years old. He now lives with six other brothers: Friar Diego, the pastor and superior (in Franciscan terms he is called "guardian"), Friar Marco, Friar Mauro, Friar Francesco and Friar Manuel. He recently defended his doctorate in dogmatic theology at the Gregorian University and teaches at the Theological Institute of Assisi, in addition to being parochial vicar at the parish of St. Gregory VII in the neighborhood of the same name in Rome.
What is the life of a young Franciscan in today's world like?
-First of all, I would like to say that it is a wonderful and fulfilling life, especially if it is accepted every day as an undeserved gift in which to give oneself freely and joyfully to others. The life of a Franciscan offers many possibilities for service. parish of St. Gregory VII In Rome, we help all the people who come to the parish and the people of the neighborhood.
Others are in hospitals (I am thinking of the chaplains at the Gemelli here in Rome or in Perugia) and care for the sick. Some live in a sanctuary and welcome pilgrims and tourists. Others live in a hermitage or in a monastery in the middle of the countryside. Of course, the rhythm of life depends very much on the context and the service we are called to render. Here, in the city, our day follows the rhythm of our prayer life, but it is completely oriented to the service of God's people, so we have to adapt to the needs of the people, which often do not coincide with those of the community.
You could say that you have "lost" your previous life. How do you live this circumstance?
-I don't know why, but when one thinks of the life of a religious, one sees immediately what has been left behind. I prefer to look at what has been chosen, what lies ahead. Obviously, every choice entails a renunciation, but it also entails a preference! A young man chooses to enter a friary because he has met the Lord, he has felt deeply loved by Him and after a time in which he tries to listen to the will of God, he intuits that religious life in the specific Franciscan charism is the most suitable for him.
Later on, all the years between entering the friary and taking perpetual vows are for discerning and assessing whether the vocation to that particular charism is well-founded or more of a one-off dazzle, as well as gradually adapting oneself to the Franciscan way of life. In this way, one does not abandon one's former life for no reason. One decides to leave everything to follow the Lord, as did the apostles who, called by Jesus, left the boat and the nets and followed him. If our gaze is fixed on the Lord, if we live an intense relationship of love with Him, then the renunciations - which remain in our lives in spite of everything, as, for example, I think of the renunciation of forming a family, having children, fulfilling oneself at work, etc. - do not weigh us down. In fact, I would say that they almost do not even come to your mind....
Everyone knows the Franciscans by hearsay, but perhaps few know what their spirituality is really like. If you were to make an X-ray of the Franciscan spirit, what would you say?
-Each friar could answer this question in a different way, even though we have the General Constitutions, approved by the Church, which update the Franciscan charism handed down to us by the Church. Rule of St. Francis. Giacomo Bini gave to the Order in 1997: (1) spirit of prayer and devotion; (2) communion of life in fraternity; (3) life in small communities, poverty and solidarity; (4) evangelization and mission; (5) formation and study.
St. Francis lived a very special life and certainly in another historical context. In this day and age, could it be said that he is a "modern-day" saint?
-I think so. It is enough to think of the meeting of religions that took place in Assisi in 1986 with St. John Paul II, and lately in the Magisterium of the Holy Father, who not by chance is called Francis, very much marked by the figure of the Poverello: Laudato si' y Fratelli tutti are two significant examples. In any case, I believe that the option for the evangelical life, the radicalism in the following of the Master and the universal fraternity are some aspects of the life of St. Francis that make him always relevant.
The parish of Gregory VII is a very lively parish, full of people of all ages.…
-Thanks be to the Lord, we have been given the opportunity to serve a very lively parish: there are so many activities and with them we touch almost all areas of Christian life: there is a large group of people who dedicate themselves to serving the poor: some prepare meals in the parish and then take them to the Termini central train station for people who sleep on the streets, others make a tour every Wednesday evening to visit and chat with the poor who sleep under the colonnade of St. Peter's or in the surrounding area. Then there is another group that offers street people to shower in their homes on Wednesdays, when the Vatican showers are closed for the Pope's audience.
On the other hand, there are other initiatives such as the Listening Center that make themselves available to the most disadvantaged families by offering them a space for counseling and giving them packages with food or other things for a month or a week. We are also trying to create a meeting place for the elderly of the parish, so that they can meet and be together: they are many, and many suffer from loneliness, because their children live in another neighborhood less expensive than ours, and often, due to work and the frenetic life we lead, they can only meet with them on weekends. We also have a school support group in which many volunteers help many children with their homework, as many are children of immigrant families and their parents are unable to guide them in their studies.
In addition, you have the house "Il Gelsomino"...
-Yes, five years ago we opened the house "Il Gelsomino" in the parish premises: we welcome children receiving treatment at the Bambin Gesù hospital and their parents. Often these treatments last for months: many children have cancer and the therapies often last for weeks in the hospital with long periods outside, but always close to the hospital. Not all families are able to rent an apartment or an apartment for their children. airbnb in Rome. In this house, we allow them to live those hard months in a dignified way, and they are also given the affection they need in those difficult moments, because there is a group that is in charge of welcoming these parents and being by their side as much as possible.
You also give a lot of importance to accompanying families, how do you approach this type of pastoral work?
-We want to take care of the spouses, helping them to enjoy and live the beauty of their marriage. We have several groups to accompany couples according to the number of years they have been married. To these we add another experience ("Famiglia in cammino"), with a few meetings a year, where there is a group of monitors who take care of the children so that the couples can follow the course with peace of mind and have time to talk to each other. It ends with a short family weekend seminar in Assisi.
We feel the need to involve families more and more in catechesis, so once a month the pastor organizes meetings for parents and adults in the parish and, from time to time, we try to organize a day of "family catechesis" in which all the children and their parents live together a Sunday to grow in faith, with activities appropriate to the different ages. There is also a post-confirmation group, a youth group, a group of scouts...And to all this must be added the ordinary pastoral work: Eucharistic celebrations, adoration, visits to the sick, confessions, listening to people who ask to speak to us... In short, there is a lot of work, thank God!
