{"id":17682,"date":"2026-05-01T16:47:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/la-missione-del-fruttivendolo-ateo\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T16:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:47:24","slug":"the-mission-of-the-atheist-fruit-vendor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/the-mission-of-the-atheist-fruit-vendor\/","title":{"rendered":"The mission of the atheist fruit vendor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Zardin<\/picture>
Andrea Sidoti and Carlo Zardin with the CLU students in the village of El Vergel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Appointment at seven in the morning in front of the church, everyone present: 15 kids from Communion and Liberation University. Among them, there is Juan David, who, however, is a fruit vendor and professes to be an atheist. We are leaving for a week of mission in a remote village of Colombia. More than a relative level of wealth, the young people of this area lack possibilities for the future, which means that it is easier for them to become embroiled in crime, even as assassins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got to know Juan David because he would accompany his sister to the group for kids in the parish. He began to participate in the meetings for young people and he immediately took a liking to us, without hiding from us his over the top Saturday evenings and above all the fact that he does not believe in God. When we pray, he remains serious but he does not really participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once he finished high school, we proposed to him, with a bit of fear, to enter the group of university students. A fruit vendor in the midst of students from some of the most prestigious Colombian universities\u2026Juan David accepted. He does not participate in Charitable Work or School of Community but he always comes by to greet us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u00a0God gave us a friendship that brings us all on our knees together before Him<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In May, we invited him to a mission that we were organizing with the CLU kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After eleven hours in the car and one in a single Jeep for all 17 of us, in which we were also seated on the roof, we arrived at the little town that would host us. The same evening we arrived, they told us that in a nearby town a young man was killed out of revenge. We celebrated Mass in the sacristy, due to the blaring music of the bars in the piazza that from Friday evening to Sunday \u201canimate\u201d the nights of the town. The owner of the great farm that provides work to the majority of the town opened his doors to us, offering us a guesthouse, which was more than sufficient. Each day, he would come to pick us up in a van and bring us to the piazza of the town. There a small restaurant offered breakfast, lunch and dinner for just a few Euros. Then we would pray Morning Prayer together and introduce the day, following the provoking title chosen for the days together: What is life for if not to be given? There followed the activities with the kids of the town. The rector of the school opened the doors of his institution. To the older kids, we spoke of happiness: with the younger one, we played in the square in the afternoon. Then we invited them all to Mass. The day of mission would finish with a half hour of silence and Vespers, to offer to God the many things we had experienced and the faces of the young people we had encountered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the entire week, Juan David was happy; curious, he asked his roommate what he was reading before going to sleep. \u201cI am reciting Compline.\u201d From that point on, every evening, they began to pray it together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We concluded our mission by celebrating Mass at the shrine of the \u201cVirgin of Poverty,\u201d a miraculous image from a nearby town, before which we kneel to pray after Mass. Juan David also kneels with us. We prayed for the mother of one of the girls from the CLU, who is suffering from cancer. We remained in silence, our hearts full of gratitude for what we had experienced, for all the people we had met, and for the friendship that God has given us to share among ourselves\u2014a friendship that brings us all to our knees before Him. We concluded by singing \u201cRomaria\u201d together. But our thoughts turned especially to Juan David as the words of the song rise to our lips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They told me to come here,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 on pilgrimage,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

to look for peace in my misadventures<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But since I do not know how to pray<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came simply to show<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

my face<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a remote Colombian village, a week of mission for the university students (and a fruit vendor) of Bogot\u00e1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"The mission of the atheist fruit vendor - Fraternity of St. Charles","description":"In a remote Colombian village, a week of mission for the university students (and a fruit vendor) of Bogot\u00e1."},"footnotes":""},"categories":[378],"tags":[527,473,474],"writers":[227,763],"regions":[1244],"cities":[396],"class_list":["post-17682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimonies","tag-fede-en","tag-missione-en","tag-preghiera-en","writers-andrea-sidoti","writers-carlo-zardin","regions-south-america-en","cities-bogota-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17685,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17682\/revisions\/17685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17682"},{"taxonomy":"writers","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writers?post=17682"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=17682"},{"taxonomy":"cities","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cities?post=17682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}