(ANS –Guatemala City) – Just a few weeks ago Fr Giampiero de Nardi was still in Italy, the country where he was born and where he undertook his first activities as a Salesian. On Sunday 25 September he received the Missionary Crucifix in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, and now he is on the missions in Guatemala, in the capital, and from there he sends this account of his first few days as a missionary.

“In these days we are talking a great deal about the future of the mission. We are beginning by taking over a parish in the city of San Benito, which will give us a permanent place to start from, to get to know the people and for them to get to know us.”

It is important, especially at the beginning to have the trust and the support of the community and of the local Church: “In fact there will be four of us because the Provincial of Guatemala will be sending a confrere from the Province as Rector of the community; (…) the mission is on the land that Bishop Fiandri SDB bought outside the city. (…) He wants us to take care of the young, to educate them and help them to escape from a vicious circle. He is convinced of this, and it is also Don Bosco’s secret: that with the right sort of education it is possible to build a different and better society.”

Things are not simple for the people in Guatemala, with such things as violence and insecurity,  corruption, poverty, low levels of taxation and little political involvement of the people. Other problems include  the huge  public debt which afflicts the country and drug traffic and consumption.

Yet, as Fr de Nardi notes:“The people are always smiling and welcoming, ready to work and not to give up. They don’t seem to be discouraged, even though it would seem natural for them to be, and they are also very religious.”

Although he has only just arrived, Fr de Nardi has already learned a lesson, important for every missionary: “What I am finding in these days is a deep trust in God. I feel like the Israelites entering the promised land: they described it as a land flowing with milk and honey, whereas in fact it was a desert. … Their’s was a view of faith. (…) Here too there are problems, but I see everyone facing them with a smile, certain that they are working in the Lord’s vineyard, and with the optimism of people who know that everything does not depend on them.”

Published 14/10/2011