The Canons of the Chapter of the Basilica of Sant’Antonino martyr are pleased to announce that they have decided to award the “Antonino d’oro 2024” prize to Lodovica Ghezzi and Mauro Carioni, managers of the “Santa Lucia” family home inaugurated in 1993 in the Crema area and moved in 1996 to Caorso (PC). They belong to the Pope John XXIII Community Association, founded in 1968 by Don Oreste Benzi (1925-2007), defined by Benedict XVI as a “tireless apostle of charity”, whose beatification process is underway.
Lodovica Ghezzi was born in Piacenza in 1964. She was the first from Piacenza to begin the journey in the Pope John XXIII Community. You currently hold the role of Territorial Manager of the Community for Lombardy which also includes the provinces of Piacenza, Parma, Trento and Bolzano and you are Deputy General Manager of the Community. You were part of the Council and the Executive Committee of the Diocesan Caritas.
Mauro Carioni he was born in Crema in 1961. He met the Community and Don Oreste during a volunteering experience in 1977. In February ’81 he began his civil service in a family home in the Rimini area and at the same time also the period of vocational verification. Since 1982 he has been a member of the Community. He was the first territorial manager for Lombardy from 1983 to 1987. In addition to being involved in the family home business, he held various positions at the central administrative level of the Community where he still collaborates today. He was part of the diocesan council of lay groups.
Mauro and Lodovica married in 1993, have 4 natural children (now aged 30, 28, 25, 15) and currently welcome 5 people (8, 13, 19, 25, 68 years). A lot has happened since the opening of the family home. With several of them there remains a strong parental family bond. All their activities since the year 2000 are shared with Silvia Righini, also a member of the Pope John XXIII Community and part of their home.
“The awarding of the prize – writes the Chapter of Canons of the Basilica of Sant’Antonino –it is intended to be an act of esteem and gratitude towards a married couple who, for thirty years now, have made the generous acceptance of life and sharing with the weakest their mission. We believe it is significant to let ourselves be inspired by their human and Christian testimony because it can help us to question the vision of the family understood as a closed and private reality, to instead rediscover its mission of being a generative and protective place for everyone, in particular for the most vulnerable. A vital place where every person is welcomed and respected in their dignity, considered not only as in need of services but as a provider of precious human and spiritual resources of great use to all. Lodovica and Mauro’s experience therefore represents a significant reminder to all of us to live and build deeply human relationships in a social reality which, on the contrary, often discriminates against and discards the weakest. From this perspective, the beauty contained in their choice to open the “Santa Lucia” family home clearly emerges, born from Don Oreste’s idea “of giving a family to those who don’t have one”. As with every “family home”, the objective is to guarantee reception, assistance, care and social reintegration of disadvantaged people. With the ability to combine, in a dynamic balance, professional educational work with the care work typical of family relationships.”
«For these reasons the Chapter of Canons deemed it appropriate to confer this honor on Lodovica and Mauro and with them on all the members of the association who live in the Piacenza area and on the entire Pope John XXIII Community. The Pope John XXIII Community is an association of faithful of pontifical right, which for fifty years has been committed to combating marginalization and poverty. On March 25, 2004, exactly twenty years ago, the Pontifical Council for the Laity definitively approved the Statutes and the Foundation Charter. Today the Community, every day, ‘sits at the table’ with over 41 thousand people in the world, thanks to more than 500 sharing realities between family homes, soup kitchens, reception centers for the disabled, therapeutic communities, Bethlehem Huts for the homeless, Educational Community with Prisoners, for victims of human trafficking, open families and houses of prayer. The Community also operates through humanitarian emergency and development cooperation projects, and is present in conflict zones (now Ukraine, Palestine, Colombia) with its own nonviolent peace corps, “Operation Colomba”, to promote the growth of a mentality of peace. For this reason he is proposing to establish the Ministry of Peace and since 2006 he has participated in the United Nations, acting as spokesperson for the most vulnerable in the world. In synergy with other realities, it helps to create the foundations of the “Free Society”, to set one’s whole life towards making choices starting from the weakest members. In fact, they are the ones who take on a decisive role in the construction of a new society because they help to understand that everyone holds the good of the other and that the common good also includes the good of the individual.
In light of the commitment and testimony of this Association, we believe it is important for our Church and city to treasure the words of Pope Francis contained in the Message for the 61st World Day of Prayer for Vocations (19.03.2024): «Let us wake up from sleep, let’s emerge from indifference, let’s open the prison bars in which we have sometimes locked ourselves up! Let us be passionate about life and commit ourselves to loving care for those around us and the environment we inhabit. I repeat: have the courage to get involved! Don Oreste Benzi, always on the side of the last and the defenceless, repeated that no one is so poor as not to have something to give, and no one is so rich as not to need to receive something”.
The “Antonino d’oro” award, now in its 39th edition, is annually sponsored and patronized by the Piasinteina family. It will be delivered personally by Bishop Adriano Cevolotto to Lodovica Ghezzi and Mauro Carioni on Thursday 4 July in the Basilica Sant’Antonino at the conclusion of the solemn Eucharistic celebration at 11.00 am.
The gratitude of the Pope John XXIII Community
The Pope John XXIII Community expresses its profound gratitude for the awarding of the “Antonino d’Oro” 2024 award to Lodovica Ghezzi and Mauro Carioni, responsible for the “Santa Lucia” family home. The prestigious recognition, now in its 39th edition, was assigned by the canons of the Chapter of the Basilica of Sant’Antonino martyr of Piacenza, as a sign of esteem and appreciation for their thirty-year commitment in welcoming and sharing with the weakest.
Lodovica and Mauro welcome the news with disbelief: «We are surprised to deserve this recognition, and grateful to the Chapter of Canons of the Basilica of Sant’Antonino for the esteem given to us. We are a family home of the Pope John XXIII Community and our only merit is to choose every day to belong to this large community family which has chosen, by vocation, to be on the side of the least by sharing life with them. Our commitment, both personal and associative, in the territory has made us visible, but our strength lies in being in communion with each other and with God. We gratefully accept this award to demonstrate to everyone the beauty of being a welcoming family and that solidarity is a precious asset that gives meaning to life. May Saint Antoninus, who testified with his blood his passion for Christ, accompany us and support us in our daily journey.”
