Once upon a time there was a King…

Ever since childhood, I have always been fascinated by the figure of the crucified Christ wearing a royal
crown and the white tunic of the Risen One. During my first years at university, I became seriously interested
in the way of life of the members of the “Christ the King” Secular Institute, founded by Giuseppe Lazzati,
before eventually finding my way to the Society.

Those Jesuits I knew only by hearsay

Until the age of 28, when I entered the novitiate, I lived in Cassano Magnago, a town near Gallarate. I come
from a practising Catholic family and always attended my neighbourhood parish. As a boy and teenager, I
knew the Society through the reputation of the Aloisianum in Gallarate and through the stock phrases of my
older fellow townspeople: “Jesuits are the ones who study…”, “You can never get the better of a Jesuit (in an
argument)…”, “Jesuits are devoted to the Sacred Heart”… and other similar “aphorisms”, which are far more
colourful in my dialect. To tell the truth, I also heard about the Jesuits from my father who, for a time, wrote
for several magazines and collaborated with Jesuits engaged in the worlds of culture and communications. In
practice, however, I had no direct knowledge of the Society.

Martini and Fumagalli

The first Jesuit who truly mattered in my life was Cardinal Martini. His pastoral approach, attentive to
helping people draw closer to the Word of God, to lectio divina and to discernment, gave me the tools for
serious growth in faith and for facing the question of vocation. Then there was the eclectic Fr Mosè
Fumagalli, the “apostle” of the Industrial Technical Institute in Gallarate, who was my religious education
teacher. No adjective could adequately describe him, as anyone who knew him can confirm. Despite my
esteem for him and the good relationship we had, I did not keep in touch after finishing school. I continued
my parish life, with Catholic Action and diocesan activities, while studying Biology at the University of
Milan.

The vocational “problem”

The question of vocation confronted me powerfully after a retreat of the Spiritual Exercises near Erba, in the
province of Como. On that occasion, the retreat was offered by a group of consecrated lay people. I
remember that their commitment to giving the Exercises and retreats was not aimed at recruiting vocations
for their Institute; on the contrary, it was a way of placing themselves at the service of the diocese and
helping young people in discernment. Thanks to this experience, I began to see consecrated life, and
especially life as a consecrated lay person, as a possible choice. In the months that followed, I had to
overcome many fears, resistances and feelings of inadequacy that kept me from seriously entering into
deeper discernment. Yet when the joy of thinking about consecration overcame the fear, I also sensed at the
same time that my interest in consecrated lay life was decreasing while my attraction to religious life was
growing.

Meeting the Villapizzone community

Who could help me find clarity? I went back to Fr Mosè and, through him, came to know the Villapizzone
community. After graduating, I carried out my civil service there and took the opportunity to make the
Month of Ignatian Exercises in daily life. My confirmation of the Society did not come only “positively”
from prayer, from the way of life of the Jesuits with whom I was in contact and from the spirituality of the
Society; it also came “negatively” from the shining example I received from the families of Villapizzone.
Seeing family households that were so open, so willing to become involved, and so committed socially and
as Christians, I realised that the vocation to marriage, wonderful in itself and “naturally” attractive, was not
the one in which I felt the greatest consolation.

The journey of formation

After entering the Society, I followed the usual formation path: novitiate in Genoa, Philosophy in Padua and
Theology in Naples. For regency, I was assigned to Sant’Agata Li Battiati (Catania). The experience was
deeply formative, not only because I had the opportunity to live in Sicily—a culture that has always
fascinated me; besides reading Pirandello, Sciascia and Capuana, as a child I never missed a Franco and
Ciccio film and I watched the television drama “The Baroness of Carini” at least three times—but above all
because of the variety of work I was able to experience: youth ministry in our parish of the English Martyrs,
some collaboration with the Astalli Centre in Catania and a few opportunities to give the Spiritual Exercises
to young people. At every stage, there were fellow Jesuits who helped and supported me in practical ways.

People’s joys and dramas

After completing specialist studies in theology in Madrid and being ordained a priest, I was sent for three
years as assistant parish priest to one of our parishes in central Catania. Returning to Catania as a priest gave
me a wealth of experience. Alongside the joy and responsibility of understanding and knowing more deeply
the joys and dramas of people’s lives—in conversations, confessions and so on—I found the encounter with
popular devotion particularly important.

Among prisoners and campesinos

I spent my third year of probation (tertianship) – the final stage of formation, leading up to the Final Vows –
in Mexico with a group of fellow Jesuits from all over the world. The most moving experiences were the
month spent on a prison island, which we reached aboard a navy ship, and the month spent travelling around
villages of ‘campesinos’ belonging to a parish run by the Jesuits. Although sociological and cultural poverty
can also lead to petty and utilitarian behaviour, it is even truer that the poor teach us to trust in divine
providence; they are more open to the Gospel and are sincere in their hospitality and in sharing what they
have.

At the service of the Word

For the next ten years, I was sent to a retreat house in Bologna that offers the Spiritual Exercises. In this
ministry, it fills me with joy to witness people’s thirst for God and to see how the Word of God—prayed with
commitment and seriousness—sheds much light on their lives, heals many wounds, enables them to
experience salvation and thus leads them to follow the Lord in a more radical and sincere way.

For the past few years, finally, I have been the socius (that is, the “assistant”) to the Novice Master. In
practice, I help the person responsible for the novitiate with the formation of the novices. The novitiate
welcomes young men who, after careful discernment, decide to enter the Jesuits. It is a two-year process, at
the end of which they make their first vows in the Society of Jesus. Being with young people is very healthy
for me because it shows me how much vitality and idealism there is in the younger generation.
“Instinctively”, each of us—myself included—tends to judge our own generation as the best; but living side
by side with young people who are deeply motivated to follow the Lord reveals to me many gifts and
strengths of the new generations, together with undeniable frailties, that my own generation did not possess.

Whenever I am asked to change community and ministry, I feel the inevitable difficulty of leaving people,
places and situations I have known and loved… Yet I always experience that the Lord is already waiting for
me in the new reality and enriches me, humanly and spiritually, through new encounters and activities. This
is the beauty of obedience!

AMDG