Pope makes pastoral visit tomorrow to
a suburb at the extreme eastern edge of Rome
Translated from the Italian service of
Dec. 11, 2010
In lower right photo above, the park within which the church is located is traced in green.
The community of Prato Fiorito in Rome's eastern periphery awaits the Holy Father's visit tomorrow with joy and trepidation. The Pope will say Mass at the parish church of St. Maximilian Kolbe which was dedicated in April last year by Cardinal Agostino Vallini, his Vicar in Rome.
Alessandro Gisotti spoke to the parish priest, don Slawomir Skwierzynski, who is Polish:
FR. SLAWOMIR: When I announced the Pope's visit last month to my parishioners, the first reaction was silence - everyone had their mouths agape in surprise. After a few moments, my assistant parish priest said to them: "Do you understand that we mean Pope Benedict XVI is coming here on Dec. 12?" Then they burst into long applause. It is an enormous joy for us despite that initial incredulity.
It is good that the Pope is visiting a really peripheral suburb, but one that has many difficulties, is that right?
Yes, This is a community that has become a dormitory suburb. People who go to work have to leave early in the morning and only get back late at night.
[In one of the background articles I read, he says that the only means of public transport is a single bus line.] We do have many problems, and the news that the Pope is visiting us was quite a surprise...
How are the faithful preparing for the visit?
We immediately began the spiritual preparation through prayer and Eucharistic Adoration, through catecheses explaining the function of the Pope, what be represents for Catholics and for Christians...
You are a young Polish priest. What does it mean to be leading a parish dedicated to your compatriot St. Maximilian Kolbe, and to now receive a visit from the Pope?D.
It is an enormous emotional experience... In fact, I have only been parish priest since September 1, and it's my first parish. It's been a different experience for me, with very different responsibilities from what I have previously had.
But I see the Pope's visit as a sign of God's love for the parish, and the presence of Mary. Let me explain that. Since I began my duties here, in every Mass we have prayed an act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to whom St. Maximilian was devoted - he created the Militia of the Immaculate.. So I thought of placing my parish under her protection. For me, after three months, to have the Vicar of Christ visit us, in this parish, on Dec, 12, which is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, is a very great sign.
The following background information is summarized from three articles I found online:
In the mid 1970s, Prato Fiorito (which means, Flowered Field), then called Ponte di Nona, was marshland with a few homes and no paved streets, a district located between farms and industrial establishments.
By 1983, it had grown enough so that the residents decided they needed a church. A parish was established in 1984, and the residents put up a 250-sq.m. prefabricated structure which served as their church until the new church was dedicated last year.
Inset on the left shows the structure that served as a church for 24 years; lower right photo, at the church dedication in April 2009 with Cardinal Vallini. The murals in the octagonal main chapel are scenes from the life of Christ painted by Kiko Arguelles, head of the Neo-Catechumenal movement, which is active in Prato Fiorito.
Construction on the church started in 2007 under a diocesan program to build new churches, and the project had the support of citizens' associations, business firms, ecclesiastical movements, and some politicians.
The church was built on a beautiful park that the community developed on eight hectares of wasteland that had been the site of an old city waterworks project.
Besides the church proper, the edifice houses all the parish offices, meeting halls and catechesis classrooms grouped around an interior courtyard. A separate structure is planned to house a community center for after-work leisure and youth activities.
Lately, new residents in the district have been mostly Chinese and Romanian immigrants.
Benedict XVI's 10th
visit to a Roman parish
by Gianluca Biccini
Translated from the 12/12/10 issue of
Not an 'anonymous agglomerate, but a constellation where God knows each one personally by name, one by one". This was the evocative definition of a city by Benedict XVI when he paid homage to the Immaculate Conception at Piazza di Spagna on Wednesday.
It's a description of how the bishop of Rome sees 'his' city. That is why, since the start of his Pontificate, he has chosen to meet them in their communities during Advent and Lent.
He has done it nine times so far: in 2005, to Santa Maria Consolatrice in Casal Bertone; in 2006, to Dio Padre Miseriordioso in Tre Teste, and to Santa Maria Stella dell'Evangelizzazione in Torrino; in 2007, to Santa Felicita e Figli Martiri in Fidene, and to Santa Maria del Rosario in Martiri Portuensi; in 2008, to Santa Maria Liberatrice in Testaccio, and to San Lorenzo fuori le Mura; in 2009, to Santo Volto di Gesu in Magliana; and earlier in 2010, to San Giovanni della Croce in Colle Salario.
Most of them are peripheral communities. As the one he will visit tomorrow, in Prato Fiorito, off Via Prenestina and 4 kms outside Rome's circumferential highway.
He is visiting the parish named for St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Polich Franciscan martyred at Auschwitz. It is a parish with 8,000 souls, mostly small artisans, and many coming from other regions of Italy - especially from Calabria and Sicily in the South, and from the Abrozzo and the Marche in the east. When they first came here, most of them built their houses with their own hands.
"That is why they have a strong sense of belonging to this district," says the parish priest, Fr. Slawomir Skwierzynski, who is Polish like their patron saint, and was assigned the parish just three months ago.
"I come from Poznan," he says, "where I was ordained in 1998, but since July 2006, I have been incardinated into the Diocese of Rome."
When the parish was first established in 1984, it was initially assigned to the Compagnia di Maria, the congregation founded by St. Louis Montfort. They established a student dormitory and a provisional church there. The area of the dormitory came to be called Colle Monfortani (Montfort Hill).
The zone, which started to grow in the 1970s, belongs to Rome's 7th municipal department administratively. Pastorally, the parish is part of the 19th prefecture of the diocese's east sector.
On April 26, 2009, the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Agostino Vallini, dedicated the new church which replaced the prefabricated building that had served as the church for almost a quarter century.
The diocesan Opera Romana for the preservation of faith and provision of new churches was primarily responsible for the construction, on part of the land that the residents had developed into a park.
"The church-parochial complex was designed by two architects belonging to the Neo-Catechumenal Way." says the parish priest, "and therefore it follows theological ideas dear to that movement founded by Kiko Arguello, who painted the murals behind the altar."
The other priests serving the parish are products of Rome's Redemptoris Mater seminary. The present assistant parish priest, don Luca Angelelli, ordained last year, is a Neo-Catechumenal.
Besides the Neo-Catechumenals, the parish also has a Padre Pio prayer group, the charismatics of the community of the Risen Christ, a group for pastoral outreach to families, a post-Confirmation follow-up group, and a youth group.
"Meanwhile," Don Slavomir adds, "with a lot of sacrifice and much enthusiasm, we are putting up a community center". In addition, of course, to normal activities in a dynamic parish: catecheses, liturgical celebrations, a local Caritas with its 'listening center' for residents with urgent material problems.
Don Slavomir points out that many foreigners have settled in Prato Fiorito lately, mostly from Romania, China, Poland and some Africans. He says the immigrants often present emergency needs and are not well integrated yet, "except for those who accompany their children to catechism classes".
[One of the other stories I read mentions that the parish has been tkaing care of 90 immigrant famlies, providing them with food packets.]
Prato Fiorito resembles so many dormitory districts in Rome's periphery, but mobility is particularly difficult for the residents. Other than the fact that the only public transport is limited to one bus line, rush-hour traffic is generally chaotic, and most commuters , even those who use their own cars, have to leave their homes very early in the morning and only get back late at night.
The inhabitants also lament the lack of infrastructure and services, a problem it shares with all the peripheral districts that spontaneously grew up among farms and industrial plants without planning.
It is because of problems like this that the Holy Father comes to assure the residents that the city is not just an 'anonymous agglomerate but a place where God knows each one personally by name".
The parishioners have been busy preparing the place for the Pope's visit, and unveiled their Nativity scene on December 7. Some of them recall having been at the Vatican on March 20, 2004, when John Paul II, already quite ill, received parishioners from the Roman parishes he had been unable to visit.
"There were four of us parishes from the east sector," one said, "and it was a great joy. Imagine what it will be like this Sunday when Papa Ratzinger will come to us and celebrate Mass!"
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/12/2010 05:26]