Molise is the only Italian region to have no Salesians, although in the past from 1948 to 1962 it had a Salesian bishop, Bishop Giovanni Lucato, and a small community of religious from 1952 to 1969 in Isernia. The town of Venafro, located almost on the border between Lazio and Campania, has around ten thousand inhabitants and is considered the “western gateway to Molise”. Its origins date back to the proud Samnite people, later subjugated to Rome; in the Middle Ages, under the Lombards, it became an important diocese, of which the appearance of a beautiful fortified village remains today.
Precisely in this month of June, during which we celebrate the martyred saints Nicandro, Marciano and Daria, the patron saints of Venafro, a long journey that has preceded this happy event comes to an end: in 2017, the Salesians received an explicit request from Bishop Camillo Cibotti to entrust a particularly popular area of the city to the Salesians, with “numerous young people and committed lay people who represent the true wealth of the area.” Together with them, a settled community of people of Roma ethnicity, “which shows all the signs of growing poverty but which, at the same time, has always represented a resource and a pastoral opportunity”. At the time, however, the Salesians were busy opening a new presence in Olbia and could not give an immediate response. Today this can come as an outgoing Church experience in a concrete periphery of Italy and the Molise region.
There will be no shortage of space in the Parish of Saints Martin and Nicholas, which has modern facilities and large rooms, both for catechesis and for recreational and sports activities; there will be no shortage of creativity and imagination in the first Salesian community that will take part in this new adventure from September. Guided by Fr Salvatore Policino, parish priest and in charge of the community, will be Fr Giovanni Molinari and Fr Carlo Pepe, sent by the Provincials they will have the task of getting to know the situation so that it can “become a point of reference for the whole diocese, especially with regard to initiatives aimed at awakening in young people faith, hope and love for Christ and His Church.”
Fr Roberto Colameo continues: 'As I began my service, I felt a strong call to give signs of renewed hope to the District. Another sign then - after Olbia - had to be in an area where the Salesian presence had not yet been realised and whose territory was entrusted to us: Molise. In October, therefore, contacts were resumed with the bishop, who again represented to us what had been indicated at the time and saw in this a plan of Providence'.
And to those who ask Fr Colameo what he expects from the future, he replies: “The richness of the local heritage, ongoing development initiatives and a potential interest in innovation could represent opportunities to improve the situation and offer a more attractive future for the new generations.”
The Salesians will be involved in the school, as Teachers of the Catholic Religion (IRC), at the service of the Parish with the Oratory, in the pastoral care of the Roma, and will make themselves available to collaborate with the city's and the Diocese's youth ministry leaders.
