Evangelization

Vanna CerettaThe road to transparency is long, but we are already picking the fruits".

Vanna Ceretta is Treasurer and Director of the Administrative Office of the Diocese of Padua, a community with more than a million faithful and almost 500 parishes. In this interview with Omnes for the Sustainability 5G series, Vanna asserts that "respect, sharing, fraternity and transparency are the fundamental ingredients to be consistent with the mission of the Church and, at the same time, to support it".

Diego Zalbidea-February 1, 2022-Reading time: 5 minutes

Vanna Ceretta is treasurer e direttrice dell'Ufficio Amministrativo della  Diocese of Padova. Vanna Ceretta is 56 years old, a laywoman, wife and mother of three children, after having worked for 18 years in the Diocesan Missionary Office as coordinator, since 2014 she has been coordinating the administrative and financial office of the Diocese of Padua and since 2019 she has become responsible.

The diocese of Padua, which has more than one million faithful, with almost 500 parishes, depends directly on the Vicariate for the temporal goods of the Church. 

It has a budget for the diocese alone of about 10 million euros. In 2020, more than 38 million euros were spent on local charitable activities and 48 million euros on charitable activities with other churches. All this is evident from the reports that have been presented year after year, an exemplary case. trasparenza amministrativa 

What makes people more generous and what characterizes them?

-I would like to respond with an image that comes to us from the Vangelo. Jesus is in Bethany: a woman pours at the feet of the master a precious spikenard perfume of incalculable value, a gesture for those who consider it the mostcessive, a prayer. The scent invades the scene and diffuses in the atmosphere. I think that this absolutely unprecedented gesture shows us an unselfish, precious and gratuitous generosity. 

What characterizes the generosity of people? Their gratuitousness in giving, in offering, without seconds and without looking for their own return. I have in mind a couple of my friends, both very professionally committed and already parents of three children, who have welcomed a teenager in their home. This boy has become part of their family, has altered their internal dynamics, has required all the attention and all the energy that was necessary for him to receive the love he needed so much to grow. It was not necessary for this couple to "pour out all the oil from the alabaster cup" (Mt 26:7) but this commitment of resources and energy has done much good not only to this woman but also to me, to my family and to so many others. 

How can we help the faithful to commit themselves to the mission and support of the Church?

-Outreach, sharing, fraternity and transparency are the fundamental ingredients to be consistent with the mission of the Church and at the same time to sustain it. In these years of service in the diocese I have seen communities that have placed the poorest and most fragile at the center and have grown in charity. I have met others who have shared their resources with parishes in difficulty. I have met people who have offered and offered free of charge their professionalism to solve the problems that arise in parishes or to take care of the accounting management with passion.

I am an example of how, when there is a path of asceticism, when fraternity is shared and truly seen, sustained by the precious values of transparency and faithfulness in the administration of goods, the Church is enriched and with it the will to participate also on the sustainability front.

Has there been a way to verify the pastoral effectiveness of transparency in the diocese of Padova?

-The path of administrative transparency is long and demanding, but we are reaping the rewards, both in terms of credibility and awareness of its value. At the beginning it was difficult to ask to be aware of everything. In addition, it has often been said that charity is not reduced to a twofold party (accounting), but after a long work of research and dialogue, the awareness that transparency is a fundamental value - and not only added - to pastoral action, especially in difficult times like the ones we are living through, has emerged. 

Is it easy for a woman with the "economist" character to dialogue and address economic issues with parishioners?

-It is the type of responsibility, not being a man or a woman, that qualifies this commitment. To exercise the office of economist, of administrator, means above all to assume a responsibility that must be sown with great determination, but that must always be accompanied by a deep spirituality. I have had no difficulty in exercising this commitment as a woman. 

Of course, professionalism and continuous availability are always required, to welcome, to accompany, to give indications, sometimes even to say "no".

A book that I read when my children were young was called: "I no che aiutano a crescere". It taught us to recognize when situations of disagreement are created by the simple inability to say no and how not knowing how to deny or forbid something at the right time can have negative consequences in a relationship between parents and children, as well as in any other relationship in which we have to exercise a role of leadership.

Deciding to say: "no" always generates great disappointment: some communities show to have a mentality now overcome and manifest a false need for new buildings, larger spaces, new activities, showing a return of the Church that comes from a past that still has deep roots.


How important are financial issues in a diocese?

-Pope Francis reminds us that we live not only in a time of change, but in a time of true epochal transformation marked by a general anthropological and socio-environmental crisis. 

This complex time forces us to make important decisions also on economic and real estate issues that will change the history of our Church. The problems we face every day require a lot of energy to find the right solution but at the same time we are called to initiate processes of change. In Padova the question has been on the table for several years and now the internal journey with the Diocesan Synod will help us to discern even more, also for the aspects related to finance and economy.

The service performed in the economy requires continuous attention in order to be able to interpret reality and translate it into a path of renewal.

Why does the Church need goods and resources to carry out its activities if its mission is spiritual?

-Goods and resources are and must be functional to the mission of the Church. Of course, it is always necessary to be very balanced and to read the interventions that are carried out in the economic field and in the management of goods in the light of the main mission of the Church: to witness to Jesus, to spread the Gospel, to remain close to the "poor" and to accompany them, whatever the form of their poverty: material or spiritual. 

We must look ahead to the Parola and examine ourselves continuously to avoid unbalanced decisions and priorities.

The pandemic has affected the generosity of the fedeli?

-Surely there has been a decrease not so much in generosity as such, but in the offerings, also because of the forced interruption of Masses and presences in the Church. But generosity has not changed, and so we have seen it with a pastoral proposal for the year of the pandemic (2020-21) dedicated to "charity in times of fraternity". The instrument, which we have called "Parish Social Support", has been able to solicit, in various ways, the generosity of the faithful and has allowed us to set up a parish fund to help individuals and/or families to "make ends meet" at this time of economic hardship that continues to hit our country hard.

Thanks to the extraordinary funds received from the Italian Episcopal Conference, the Diocese has approached every parish that has made a request, returning one euro for each donor to the parish fund and encouraging each community, with the help of all the parishioners, to commit at least twice the amount. The result exceeded all expectations. We have seen a beautiful journey of experiences of solidarity and closeness that has filled our hard-working communities with hope.

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