EUROPE/ITALY - The legacy of Rev Oreste Benzi: “We are part of the Church and the Church has assigned to us a role in the world of slavery, poverty and abuse ”

Saturday, 3 November 2007

Roma (Agenzia Fides) - “We are part of the Church and the Church has assigned to us a role in the world of slavery, poverty and abuse”: Rev Oreste Benzi, a priest of the diocese of Rimini, founder in 1968 of the Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII Association, told Fides in an interview some two years ago (see Fides 20/1/2005). Rev Benzi died in Rimini on 2 November. On 7 October 1998 the Pontifical Council for the Laity recognised the Community as “an international association of lay Catholics of pontifical right”. “Our community” said Rev. Benzi, “is present in 21 countries in many parts of the south of the world from Latin America, to Africa and Asia to help the development of these peoples in the light of Christ. Our work in the world covers two fields of action: on the one hand we work against oppression of powerful countries which often exploit poor countries and on the other with micro-programmes we try to support initiatives undertaken locally by oppressed peoples. Rather than undertake initiatives ourselves we support local initiatives… We help these peoples with their challenges, activity, initiatives and in their work we bear witness to Christ and the Gospel which gradually becomes the foundation for their life. We help the people we assist to learn to help those in need and to become witnesses of Christ’s love for the world”.
One area where Don Benzi and his Community is especially active is to eradicate prostitution and the trafficking of girls. “The Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII for more than 10 years works in the region Piedmont and elsewhere in Italy to free women enslaved in prostitution-don Benzi said at one of numerous torchlight marches of prayer, solidarity and liberation-. We cannot be silent in the face of this slavery which reduces more than 100.000 young women and girls to objects for sale. Their suffering is a desperate cry to our consciences which are becoming accustomed to injustices. This is the time to firmly direct the will of our governors to work speedily to free women from this horrible slavery.”
On the occasion of World AIDS Day (see Agenzia Fides 1/12/2004), in a reflection sent to Fides, don Benzi said essential medicines should be freed of patents and made accessible to all at reasonable prices, he said: “Millions who died last year might be still alive today if anti-retroviral drugs had been made accessible. The cries of the sick and the dead is God's finger pointing against us! We must not give in to evil which exists, but we must fear even more the good which is lacking. On this Day we must all examine our consciences and ask forgiveness. This Day must make us become one people guided by the Catholic Church, the one true Church of Christ, which fights and struggles for justice and peace among men.”
Don Oreste Benzi interviewed by Fides following tragic events connected with Satanism, (see Fides 8/6/2004) said: “ n recent years I have come up against the activities of occult satanic groups and the horror of their rites including sexual abuse of the young persons involved. Very often these Satanists are respectable persons above all suspicion and their aim is to destroy morally and psychologically anyone who works against them and tries to stop these occult activities. «“The aim of occult and satanic organisations is to try eliminate the presence of God from society”» Rev Benzi said. «On the part of the authorities it takes courage and coherence to find and disperse these organisations and on the part of the public a great sense of civic responsibility to denounce these facts. The phenomenon of Satanism is connected with equally harmful and dangerous evils such as prostitution, paedophilia and trafficking of children. Very often it is the most helpless, like children, who fall prey to a network of sects. Once a person is caught it is very difficult to escape. In Italy there are an estimated 600.000 members and what is more concerning, most of them are young people, adolescents. Our country needs a new law on secret societies and satanic sects the existing one is to generic”.
On 21 March 2007 don Benzi celebrated the 20th anniversary of the inauguration of the first “Capanna di Betlemme”, home for the homeless (see Agenzia Fides 16/3/2007), where since 1987 circa 10.000 people have found 'home' for a more than one day. “The real emergency connected with extreme poverty in our country and elsewhere-don Oreste said at the time - is to address the all the needs of the persons in difficulty. Temporary shelter and food is not enough: we must build life together with them though sharing and long term programmes and projects aimed to include the poor in society”. Today the Home of 650sq mt., in the hills of Covignano, has a section for over night stays, an apartment for people with personalised long term projects, and a work centre. It has 40 beds and 5 are for women. It serves about meals a day. There is a medical centre and an office for legal assistance. The Comunità has similar structures in Vicenza and Bologna, and also in Albania, Russia, Bolivia, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya, and we are considering opening homes in other countries.
On 24 October the Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII Association inaugurated its first Family Home in Sardinia (see Fides 23/10/2007), to meet numerous requests to help people in difficulty and to help the Association's community experience take deeper root in the territory. The first Family Home was opened in 1972. Today there are 269 Family Homes formed of singles, or married couples who become temporarily or permanently fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of people will a disability, minors in difficulty, form drug addicts, people which psychic problems.
The last interview Don Benzi gave to Fides was in August in a Dossier The Drug Industry (see Agenzia Fides 1/8/2007 Italian only).
On All Saints Day, 1 November, only hours before his unexpected death, as he had done for the past nine years don Benzi and the Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII, urged everyone to pray for the unborn children who died before birth: some of natural death, many, many others at the hand of man through deliberate abortion. The Community is in front line to protect life of the unborn child and to support mothers/couples in difficulty to enable them to have their child in a dignified manner. “The 1017 children killed in 2006, victims of abortion in our hospitals in Rimini and in Cattolica -don Benzi wrote in the call - should awaken our consciences and pull us out of indifference!” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 3/11/2007; righe 91, parole 1.352)


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