09-12-2020 | di COOPI

10 years after the death of our Founder

Dear friends,

I am writing to you today - on the 10th anniversary of Father Barbieri’s death - to invite each of you to a moment of recollection. Those who are believers will say a prayer, those who are not will find the best way to remember Father Barbieri: in the greatest freedom - as he would have wished - everyone will find a way to remember "his" Barbieri, who, as a Jesuit, never imposed his faith on anyone.

Yes, because each one of us has "his" Barbieri: those who knew him in person have a thousand episodes to remember, those who did not know him have their own idea of the man and the values that he transmitted to us. On COOPI's website you can find beautiful testimonies about what Barbieri means to us, like this one, of one of our collaborators.

I also thought on this day to tell you one of the many episodes that I lived with him. We are at the end of 2009, about a year before his death. The President of COOPI receives an invitation from the Presidency of the Republic to participate at the first “Africa Day”, at the Quirinale. It cannot be refused, but there is some concern for Barbieri's health. They ask me, as a doctor, (...you never know...) to accompany him.

 There wasn't the Frecciarossa fast train yet and we had to be at 10:00 at the Quirinale, so at 6:20 we were on the first plane to Rome. At Fiumicino airport, we could have easily afforded a taxi to the centre of Rome, but this was not part of Barbieri's mindset. "With how much we spend for a taxi, I can send three children to school for a month...".

Train to Termini, then bus. The stop is not far from the Quirinale, but the climb is quite steep, and when Barbieri arrives at the entrance of the building he is quite tired. Barbieri was not particularly interested in the ceremony; he was much more interested in talking to the presidents of the other NGOs (in the picture Berbieri and Fr Dante Carraro, CUAMM). After a snack, you could not waste the money of the trip: so let's add the ceremony to a visit to the Caritas headquarters in Rome, where the Abbé Cibambo from Bukavu works. Barbieri talks with him at length about the various interventions he supports in the Kivu, about how to send large amounts of aid to Bukavu... If in his travels Barbieri promised a family a sewing machine, he would do his best to get it for them, even if sending a sewing machine to Bukavu is not easy... 

I have told you this story to say that even in the most different moments Barbieri never stopped remembering that "... our action is a drop of water in an immense desert of necessity. But we work in the conviction that where that drop falls a blade of grass can sprout, and the more the blades will sprout the more the grassy surface will extend, which will make the desert retreat and nourish many hungry mouths", to use his words. 

I have told you a little episode: it would be nice to receive from you too, or at least from those who feel it, a short memory. You can do it by writing it directly on Coopi's Facebook page or sending it to me (presidenza@coopi.org).

A hug to all of you

Claudio Ceravolo, President

P.S. In Walungu, near Bukavu, a mass was celebrated in memory of Father Barbieri. It was attended by all those who knew Father Barbieri and those who benefited from his help.