(ANS – Turin)– Tomorrow, Saturday 16 May, at the International Book Fair in Turin, there will be the launch of a book by Marina Lomunno called The playground behind bars: my oratory in Ferrante Aporti.  It is in the form of an interview with Fr. Domenico Ricca, a Salesian who has been chaplain to the juvenile prison in Turin for 35 years.

"For some time the journalist from Voce del Popolo had been asking me insistently for an interview. She wanted me to speak about the everyday life of young detainees. I kept saying no, and those who know me will know why! Then, however, the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco prompted me to accept," said Fr Ricca, better known among the young people of Ferrante Aporti as "Don MECU".

The book that is being launched tomorrow is an account of their stories and the dream of a Salesian priest who tries to make the prison like an oratory. It is a lengthy interview that reads almost like a novel. What emerges is a vivid picture enlivened by the touching experiences of a Salesian ministering to young people in prison. He is always discreet, since the people he is talking about are real young people who need to be allowed to grow up without unnecessary and harmful media exposure.

The book is a tribute to the boys and girls of Ferrante, and to the men and women on the staff who have shared this long experience with Fr Ricca. It is also a tribute to Don Bosco, in this Year of the Bicentenary of his birth.  As a young priest he used to visit the prisons of Turin and he was shocked by what he saw there.

In the introduction Fr Ricca says: "I will never forget Mauro from Novara.  We first met when he was on job placement in one of the workshops. Years later, whenever he was in Turin, he always came to visit me at Ferrante, and he introduced me to his wife and child. And then there was Franco from Vercelli. In prison he formed a heavy rock band, and when he got out he used to give concerts."

"In all these years what have I learned from the young people?” he asks. And he goes on to say, “If you get to know them well they are like the young people you meet in any school or oratory. You grow to love them and take their stories to heart.   But you also realize that it takes a lot of passion and a lot of trust. The words of Don Bosco are increasingly true: in every young person, even the most disturbed, there is always a way to their heart and it is up to the educator to discover that way."

The copyright of the book is published by the Salesian publisher Elledici. The author’s rights will be donated to the study and care of the young people in Ferrante Aporti in Turin.

Published 15/05/2015