«The great merit of Don Crystals? Have helped the Christian community of Trentino to destroy clericalism, which has always been the great temptation of the Church.” But for Don Marcello Farina, “this operation is not over yet, it is a legacy that we must collect.” The next day of the death of Don Vittorio Cristelli, the “dissident” priest who wanted to bring the people’s Church outside the ecclesial institutionDon Farina analyzes the state of health of the Trentino diocese. “But not without a coffee first.”
The death of Don Vittorio Cristelli: the memory of Don Marcello Farina
We meet him at Stupidin Bleggio, the town nestled in the Giudicarie where Farina grew up and where he is returned about a year ago, after decades spent in Trento. «I had great respect for Don Vittorio, taught me freedom of spirit and attention to people’s real problems”, he explains to us while we wait for the moka to bubble. You get the impression of being in a kind of cultural refuge, halfway between a welcoming home and a library. In a perfectly balanced combination. “This structure was once a farmyard, but after a lot of work I transformed it.” The rooms are mostly framed with books. When we climb the first set of steps we have already left behind three or four large shelves of volumes. Then we set foot in the attic: «Here is my think tank». A desk, a table in the middle of the room, a couple of armchairs facing each other, and piles of notes. Don Farina writes everything by hand and the thoughts accumulate in folders. Then others books: «There will be 3,500. At least the ones left — he smiles — I had to give away two thousand.”
The dissident priests who wanted to change the Trentino Church
A furnishing choice also made due to professional deformation: philosophy teacher in high school, professor at the University of Trento, teacher at the Higher Course in Religious Sciences of Fbk and at the University of the Third Age. The philosopher priestas it was renamed, it has guided the last half century of Trentino’s cultural life, living through the years of student mobilizations and rifts with institutions that did not allow for reconciliation. Flour he shared battles with Cristelli and Don Dante Clauser, and all three suffered the same fate: distanced yourself from the clerical community. In short, it is not difficult to consider them intellectuals who are inconvenient for the traditional Trentino Church. «Do I recognize myself in this definition? If inconvenience means trying to renew the Christian message every time, then yes.” On the other hand, Don Farina rewinds the thread, «I am a son of the Second Vatican Council, which ended in ’65, when I became a priest.” After the Council the Church is redefined as a “community of believers” and, conversely, the pyramidal structure of the dioceses is put into crisisthe. «But the most precious document, from a human point of view, is the Gaudium et spes, which reconstructs the relationship between the Christianity and the world. The latter is no longer the enemy of the Christian, but the homeland of faith.”
The conservative wing that represented «The fear of the clericals»
The Trentino Church of that period, however, was not ready to accept his reform. In the 1989 Bishop Sartoriwith the task of «normalizing», he fires Don Cristelli outright by the management of the weekly Trentino life and also Flour since 1994, when he began saying mass in an always packed cathedral, he has been experimenting with obstructions of Piazza Fiera: «Every Sunday the bishop had my sermon recorded. In that moment Sartori embodied the fear of the clericals.” In fact, some suspect that he was sent to reunify the Christian community around the old Christian Democratic leader. «The style of my homilies was probably annoying, then a few stings. I once compared Jesus to a street minstrel, taking up a beautiful novel by Heinrich Böll. Because Jesus of Nazareth, I was saying, is the one who comes out of the Bonn station, sits down on the steps and starts singing. They were furious.” In 2000, “tired of this situation”, he left the Cathedral, taking many faithful with him, who follow him wherever he preaches. A further insult to those who opposed him, perhaps. «I have not suffered from being marginalized, except sometimes. I was more free, the lay people took care of inviting me to do things with them”.
Don Farina: «The Church today is very fragile»
But what has changed since then? «It is a moment of great fragility for the Church in general, including that of Trentino”. Don Farina gives himself time to think, with his eyes half closed. It seems that he wants to find the right word to support the ideas. And he does it without ever a hint of arrogance, he has the way of speaking like someone who rejects pedestals. «I think that the Trentino Church now lacks the ability to understand situations in their depth. To accept them. So there is no perspective and risks being without a future. The Trentino Church is present bureaucratically, but it is not enough. It’s collapsing from a cultural point of view.”. Beyond, therefore, the specific areas to which the ecclesiastical world seems unwilling to apply itself, «the real problem is the dialogue with reality»: «The Church of Trento is repetitive, in the ways of presenting itself and thinking. It lacks cultural momentum, I would dare to say, but perhaps I’m too harsh.”
Dealing with anxiety: «The Church cannot be moralistic»
The task it is therefore not to “distill consolidated certainties”., but to question yourself. However, breaking the traditional mechanisms, according to Farina, means «deal with anxiety”. And the recipe for a reformed diocese would come from the courage to bear it: «It is important to sow problems even in the area of faith. Because it is the restlessness that keeps her going, how life goes forward, not the repetition of ways of thinking and practicing Christian rites.” This solution, which is half philosophical, does not hide Farina. And this is confirmed by the portrait of Kierkegaard guarding the spiral staircase, behind the priest. «My friend now», smiles Don Farina. After all, in the Danish philosopher, who owns through restlessness he has undermined traditional faith, he has never hidden the fact that he has a point of reference. «Moreover, the representative of the Italian bishops also said the other day that Christianity it is restlessness in principle» he adds while grabbing a fortnightly magazine from his desk. «Fortunately there are still magazines of Italian Catholicism open!”. A message for the Trentino Church of the future? «To love the women and men of today and to share their journey to the end, in freedom. The church he cannot be a moralist. I would use the words of John XXIII: the Christian community is called to defend and safeguard the humanity of people and their freedom of spirit.”
