From the windows of our rectory at the parish of Nuestra Señora de las Aguas, a beautiful colonial church in the center of Bogotá, you can see many people pass by.
Hundreds of students. Various professionals, public servants. Tourists. Street vendors, loiterers, homeless. Elderly out waking, young couples, sporty-types who for training run up Monserrate, the mountain that holds the most famous sanctuary of the city. Bands of young people, storms of children. And then more students, more workers, and it repeats.
Colombia is a land of beauty and contradictions. Within the kaleidoscope of flowers, colors, tastes, music, within the luxurious vegetation and the ceremonial gentility, there lies hidden misery, diffidence and violence.
The most prestigious university of Colombia, the Universidad de los Andes, is only four minutes walking from the slums of the neighborhood La Paz. The high-tech university students are neighbors with the shacks, luxury and elegance with poverty and discomfort. And both are in the territory of Las Aguas.
In the last seven years, the house has been led by Fr. Ruben Roncolato, who now has returned to Rome to hold the position of rector of the House of Formation of the Fraternity of St. Charles. The responsibility of taking his place was entrusted to Fr. Andrea Sidoti. With him live Fr. Carlo Zardin, who focuses on ministry with the university students and helps at the Universidad Pedagogica, and Fr. Giovanni Barrani, who is currently pastor and who also accompanies a group of younger people and teaches at the school Riccardo Pampuri. The three are called to look squarely at and embrace the contradictions of this land. How? “We are a point of passage,” responds Fr. Andrea. “To the people who pass through and to those who live here we want to offer a house, which is simply a place of authentic relationship. A beautiful proposal but also a serious one: for catechism before First Communion, for example, we require two years of attendance, and not one like most of the parishes in the city. But it is because it is an introduction to a life, a friendship.”
We must remind them that God is not a severe judge but a good father.
Colombia has a traditional Christianity, one of the people, explains Fr. Andrea: the masses are full, confessions are frequent, devotions have deep roots. “In Colombia, people believe with simplicity that God exists and that one can have a relationship with Him.” And yet…”We do not need to convince them that God exists, but we must remind them that God is not a severe judge nor a divinity whose favor must be sought, but a good father.” A crucial theme, because it connects to the absence of the figure of the father. “On the one hand, the family is formally sacred and comes before all else, on the other hand, men often have two or three families, and children are afraid to relate to their parents.”
Colombia is a land wounded by violence. The latest example is the attempted assassination of the presidential candidate, Miguel Uribe, in June, by a boy who was only fifteen. And there is not only violence: there is anonymity, solitude. Before these realities, the first proposal that the priests make to the persons they meet is charitable work: born during the pandemic, five years ago, it consists in dedicating Saturday morning to various activities for others: from visiting the elderly in nursing homes, to catechism for children, to the distribution of hot drinks to the street vendors and homeless of the Septima Avenida. Simple gestures to educate to love, to live relationships with gratuity.
If charitable work was one of the first Colombian flowers, the last was the recently started experience of CLU (Communion and Liberation University). There is a weekly Mass, attended by 20-30 students; there are mini retreats during special liturgical times; there are lunches and dinners together and there is the cultural center, El Faro, born online and then become “flesh” during the time of pandemic. In the past months, two girls of CLU from Milan crossed the ocean for an experience of mission in Colombia, to lend a hand with CLU in Bogotá. They stayed close to the church and shared in the priests’ life, from prayer, silence, charitable work, friendship and even the parish mission in a small town of Valle del Cauca. “They gave of themselves without holding anything back. And our young people perceived the beauty of their gift,” Fr. Andrea concluded. These are just a few of flowers blooming since the Fraternity of St. Charles arrived on the shores of Colombia, which was nine years ago. At the center of the contradictions of this country, the seed of communion and of charity has found fertile ground.
