A native of Riva del Garda, 22, he studies Law at the Cattolica, where he has already chaired the internal group. He will hold the position until 2024
by Francesca
Bertuglia
Federico Vivaldelli is the new president of the diocesan Fuci of Milan (Italian Catholic University Federation). Born in 2000, a native of Riva del Garda and a Law student at a Catholic University, he will hold the position for the two-year period 2022-2024. In the past two years, Vivaldelli was already president of the Fuci Cattolica group. Fuci, in fact, is present in Milanese universities with three groups: State University (group chaired by Elisa Granata), Catholic University (group now chaired by Leonardo Cervi) and the university campus of Città Studi (the latter is aimed at both students of the Polytechnic, both to those of the scientific faculties of the State and is chaired by Isabella Daino). The diocesan presidency now assumed by the young Trentino student coordinates the initiatives of the three groups.
Combining faith and reason
“After finishing high school, I moved to Milan three years ago, to one of the university’s colleges, to enroll in Law at the Catholic University – says Vivaldelli -. From the outset I had the desire to know new forms of association that could be stimulating training and aggregation in this new city. Already in Riva del Garda I had frequented the ecclesial association Via Pacis, a reality with which I am still in contact even now, when I return home. However, as a university student I had the intention of knowing an environment that combined personal formation and spirituality, so that – in a certain sense – faith and reason were not opposed, but proceed in parallel. I found it in the Fuci ».
The difficulties of the pandemic
Federico explains that during the time of the pandemic, the association activities were particularly penalized and the “generational change” was more complicated, between new graduates who left the group and new freshmen who did not have the opportunity to get to know the association, “stuck” in cause of the lockdown. “The years between 2020 and 2022 were tough for everyone, and even in this area of service we had to adapt, we tried to reinvent our groups, to make positive use of digital tools so that the desire to talk to each other was not lost, to confront each other, to get to know each other, albeit partially. Fortunately, in the last academic year a good part of the activities returned to the presence, and it was a bit like retracing the first steps », he comments.
Relationships and collaboration
The Fuci, adds the new president, is proposed to students as a place where they have the opportunity to put their qualities into play, seek an equal and profitable comparison, cultivate their personal growth on several fronts. «A university reality with a wide“ offer ”, so that each student can find their place and feel enriched from a spiritual, cultural and relational point of view – continues Vivaldelli -. The bet for the next two years is to continue to focus on relationships and collaboration, first of all, Ambrosian Catholic Action, Meic, University and youth ministry, as we have always tried to promote in the past “. And he concludes: «What I would like to convey is the awareness that making a commitment means putting passion into one’s service. If I have to make someone understand that this experience is important, I have to know how to share its beauty. Therefore I believe that the Fuci – and all the peer associations – has the mission of being welcoming because, as Pope Francis recently said in his homily for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, this must be “the time of a Church in which each one can feel welcomed and accompanied ”».