Via Lucis 2022, ready to start following the example of 14 witnesses

Roberta Barbi – Vatican City

Three thousand kilometers in fourteen days, accompanied by fourteen smiles that stand out on as many faces bathed in the light of Jesus: those of the witnesses who have been chosen as spiritual guides for the 2022 edition of the Via Lucis, organized by the association Tucum Odv in collaboration with Terra and Missione Aps and with the Festival della Missione. Every day, in 14 different cities, the participants will meet the poorest who live in the railway stations to live together a moment of prayer and service, they will listen to testimonies, take part in workshops on the field and fully experience Eucharistic Adoration, accompanied by figures linked to the territory, young people who, despite the very short spaces of their lives, have left an indelible mark on others, simply letting themselves be molded by the Lord in their daily existence.

Sickness as an experience to be offered to the Lord

Many of the young witnesses chosen as examples for today’s edition of the Via Lucis have suffered in life in the body, but have been able to channel pain into energy, driven by the engine of faith. In addition to the exemplary figure of Carlo Acutis who needs no introduction and whose testimony will take place in Milan in the church of Santa Maria Segreta that he frequented and which today preserves one of his relics, there are other less known but equally shining characters. He begins in Rome with David Buggithe “soldier of Christ” who, not yet eighteen, does not rebel against the disease that afflicts him, but on the contrary accepts it knowing that he has not said yes to suffering, but to God. In Naples we continue with the promising violinist Carlotta Nobile that from the Chamber Orchestra of the Santa Sofia Academy that she directs, she becomes a “music donor” in the oncology wards where she is hospitalized and testifies how cancer has healed her soul. In Taranto Pierangelo Capuzzimati who, not even 18 years old, knows how to recognize in the evil that oppresses him the plan of God for himself and becomes the father of his own parents, bringing them closer to the faith and making them mature in conversion. And then, again, in Brindisi Matteo Farina who at the age of 19 speaks of his illness as a “spiritual renewal” and in the hospital, forgetful of himself, he dedicates himself to the comfort and spiritual health of others. In Parma, on the other hand, the Sicilian is offered Sarah Calvano in whose diary, published with the title “Sarah’s magnificat” gives the shocking testimony of how happy one can be in a hospital bed. Finally, in Piacenza it is the turn of Giulia Gabrielia fourteen year old from Bergamo who knows how to live his illness as an adventure that will have a nice ending anyway, whether it is healing or an encounter with the Lord.

Giving oneself to others is the greatest joy

Among the fourteen witnesses there are also young people who have spent all their time for others, such as Mario Giuseppe Restivo, who died in an accident at the age of 19. Always engaged in Catholic scouting, it is in this fertile ground that his vocation towards the service of young people has taken root, so much so that he has brought scouting to the peripheral parishes of his Palermo. In Assisi it will be remembered Marianna Boccolini, an eighteen year old native of Narni who until her death in a car accident had the dream of becoming a doctor to cure the poor and the suffering, enlightened as she was by her gaze of wonder towards others. She will also die in an accident at 23 Sandra Sabattinifrom Ravenna, a disciple of Don Benzi who after an experience with the disabled and drug addicts decides that she can no longer do without them because by choosing them she has chosen God. Marco Gallo, 17 years old and the courage to abandon “normal things” to set out in search of a higher, different happiness that can only come from faith and from heaven. In the same vein also the witness of the Turin stage, Maria Orsola Bussoneof the Focolare Movement, who at the age of 16 wrote to the founder Chiara Lubich that she understood the value of the Cross, then living it on herself with an untimely death during a camp for children in which she participates as an animator.

Love the Lord until death

Continuing in no particular order, there are two other very significant figures that the participants in the Via Lucis will be called to know, united by the violence in death which is almost a martyrdom. In Bari it will reflect on Santa Scorese, the first victim of femicide when the stalker was still not a crime, killed in defense of her chastity at the age of 23 in 1991 and for this reason remembered as “the saint of the persecuted”. She was permeated by the spirituality of the Salesians, of Catholic Action and of the Focolare – the most important encounters of her in her life – she had matured before her death the intention to consecrate herself to the Missionaries of the Immaculate of Father Kolbe but she did not in time. Last but not least, don Ezechiele Ramincalled “Lele”, of Padua but also of the world, because he becomes part of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus. With them he will go among the indigenous Americans, in Mexico, he will return home in time to help the earthquake victims of Irpinia and then back to Brazil, where he will be killed for his commitment to improving the living and working conditions of peasants harassed by landowners.