Holy Thursday: Pope Francis at the service of the aged and disabled
(Vatican Radio) For the second year in a row Pope Francis has chosen to celebrate
the Mass of Our Lord’s Supper among people often pushed to the margins of society.
He will once again visit the Don Gnocchi centre in Rome’s Casal del Marmo area, close
to the Youth Detention Center where the Pope celebrated Mass among young prison inmates
last year. This year he will be visiting a sister center for the elderly and disabled.
The
Mass of Our Lords Supper commemorates the institution of the Eucharist and Christ’s
mandate to the Apostles – the first ordained bishops and priests- to be at the service
of God’s people. A moment that symbolizes this service is the Mandatum – or washing
of the feet of twelve people.
Holy See Press Office director, Fr. Federico
Lombardi has confirmed that this year the chosen twelve will include nine Italians,
one Muslim from Libya, a young man from Cape Verde and an Ethiopian woman. All of
whom have received help and support from the Don Gnocchi Foundation to overcome the
difficulties, marginalization and isolation they often face on account of their age
or a disability.
But why does Pope Francis seem to have a particular preference
for the Don Gnocchi Foundation?
To find out more Linda Bordoni spoke to expert
physicist Dr. Furio Grammatica*, who is the Chair of the Centre for Innovation and
Technology Transfer (CITT) at the Don Gnocchi Foundation. She found out that with
a chain of 30 healthcare and research centres specialized in rehabilitation throughout
Italy, the Foundation embodies what Pope Francis has termed “moving out to the margins”
in search and support of those people society has forgotten or discarded.
Listen:
“What
are the expectations of your guests and your operators, getting close to the meeting
with the Pope ?”
It has been a big surprise for all of us. We all knew
how Pope Francis likes the concrete service to the most frail people, and we all felt
him as a “supporter” of our mission, like his predecessors showed us to be. On the
other hand, when we realised that, thanks to a request of our President – Monsignor
Angelo Bazzari – the Pope really decided to visit us in a so important and symbolic
occasion – we all thought “too fantastic to be true”! Concerning our guests, one
could guess that most of them cannot fully catch the meaning of this visit, but this
is definitively not true, even for the most critical cases: what I learned first,
when I joined Don Gnocchi Foundation 10 years ago, is that our guests all developed
a clear “sixth sense” on how much they are loved, and – in a definitively more straight
way than us – they fully rely on people closer to them, who represent the fondness
they feel. Pope Francis is not only a Pope, but a icon of the tenderness and strength
at the same time, so they are really excited in view of meeting the Pope. We, as
Don Gnocchi Foundation operators, really expect a familiar, easy, true presence of
the Pope at our Centre, bringing-in a wave of hope and strength in our daily care
towards our guests. These are not easy days, for anyone. By the way, the Lent period
reminds us the meaning of solitude, weakness, doubts, being tired or confused. Let
me say, to see the Pope coming at our workplace means anticipating a bit the Easter
for us !
“What does Pope Francis' decision to visit your Foundation represent
for you ?”
Our Founder, Don Carlo Gnocchi, has been defined as “a charity
entrepreneur”, putting together two terms that are sometimes felt as opposite. Actually
he demonstrated in his life, and left us as an heritage, that these terms are not
only compatible, but synergic. For those like us, willing to continue on this track,
the secret not to be overcome by pure management logic is to stay stuck on the reality
of the sufferance, with humility, feeling our limits, but - on the other hand – “combating
the battle against the invasion of death”, as Don Carlo used to say, by all means:
charity together with science, patience together with innovation, closeness together
with technology. We feel that Pope Francis message – so far – has been very clear
and is very encouraging for us to go on in this track: staying close to neighbour,
first, somehow witnessing the caress of God through all our available means. If the
Pope comes and washes the feet to our guests, we can only be more and more determined
to offer them all that we can.
“Can you tell us something about your structure
and activities ?”
Don Gnocchi Foundation is more than 60 years old. Don
Carlo Gnocchi was a chaplain of the alpine troops during the second world war, and
there he saw – as everyone – horrific situations and the fear of dying soldiers especially
to leave their families alone; but – with the typical vision of the saints – don Carlo
also saw a perspective to be trained by this desperation and to offer a vision of
hope, starting from there. In 60 years the Foundation evolved together with the frailties
of its guests, passing from the little war victims to the wider target of rehabilitation,
but keeping the holistic approach of the Founder: the human being has to be restored
as a whole, as a masterpiece, taking into account body and soul at the same time and
using all means available. So we passed from crutches to nanotechnologies, from blood
analysis to genomics, from bare visual inspection to advanced neuroimaging, from the
pilot centre to a chain of 29 centres in 9 Italian regions, in which we see 3,5 million
patients a year, and more than 5.000 operators work in the field of clinics, rehabilitation,
assistance to elderly, to disabled people, to terminally ill patients; education;
scientific and technological research (the Foundation is recognised by the Italian
Ministry of Health as a Research Hospital excellence centre in the field of rehabilitation
medicine); innovative models of territorial care, also using ICT advanced techniques;
presence in developing countries to export the value of being rehabilitated even where
desperation of everyday life is the rule. This is the declination of the Foundation
mission slogan “Accanto alla vita, sempre”, that is “Always aside life”. “Always”
means from the childhood to the death and from hospital to home. It is important for
us what Pope Francis repeatedly says: be magnanimous, let’s stretch our hearth. We
hope he will remind to all of us this encouragement next Thursday, confirming he will
support us with his guide. * Furio Gramatica, physicist, was
born in Milano in 1964. He is the Chair of the Centre for Innovation and Technology
Transfer (CITT) at Don Gnocchi Foundation – an Italian chain of 30 healthcare and
research centres specialized in rehabilitation – where he also leads the Nanomedicine
and Clinical Biophotonics Laboratory (LABION). For five years he served as Director
of the Biomedical Technology Department “Polo Tecnologico” in the same Foundation.
Formerly, he spent several years at CERN (Geneva), at Italian Institute of Nuclear
Physics and in high-technology companies, with R&D management roles. Dr. Gramatica
is a member of the Executive Board of the European Technology Platform of Nanomedicine
(ETPN) and Chair of the ETPN Clinical Interface Group; member of the board of experts,
evaluators and reviewers of the European Commission and of Wellcome Trust; nanomedicine
Scientific Advisor of the Italian Ministry of Health; national representative of Italy
at ETPN Mirror Group; member of Nanotechnology Commissions of Assobiotec and of Milano
Engineers Association; fellow professor of physics at Milan University Medical School.