Presentation of the Priests’ School in Loppiano

Learning to live in communion in order to become builders of communion

Lorenzo Campagnolo:
In Loppiano there is also a school of life for diocesan priests and seminarians. This year there are thirty of us: priests, deacons and seminarians, a young man who is thinking about entering the seminary and the retired Archbishop of Taipei, Joseph Ti-Kang, who is present here. Our ages range from 19 to 78, and we come from 18 countries of 4 continents.

The beginnings of this school go back to right after the Council. During those times Cardinal Florit of Florence had exclaimed: “We would need a Loppiano for the priests too.” Other bishops expressed themselves in a similar way.

When Chiara Lubich inaugurated the school in October, 1966, she said: “If the priests put aside everything, even the priesthood, to ensure the presence of Jesus among them, living the Kingdom of God like children, Jesus will inevitably bring about new pastoral programs, new seminaries…. And if there is unity also with the lay part of the Movement, it will give origin to what I called the “city-Church,” or “society-Church” which will show the world how it would be if everything were clarified [filled with new light] by Jesus, by his Gospel.”

At Loppiano we experience the beauty of the living Church, where we are one heart and one soul. Brothers among brothers, as the Council said, we are in contact with people who have different vocations, but who all have the same Ideal: to live the Gospel, to love one another, to bring the civilization of love in the world. In this perspective, the ministerial priesthood emerges first of all as service and we discover that it should be based on living out the common priesthood.

For us, Loppiano is like a novitiate where you learn the technique of living in unity, according to Jesus’ prayer: “May they all be one as you and I, Father, so that the world may believe” (see Jn 17:21 ). Putting the new commandment at the basis of everything, we try to be a real family, more intense than a natural one, following the model of life of Nazareth and the apostles with Jesus.

We have moments of prayer and cultural and spiritual in-depth studies. At the same time, everyone works in the business enterprises of the little town or in running the house. The fact that also bishops and university professors, vicar generals or superior of seminaries work in the kitchen or clean the bathrooms, is certainly unusual, but it is an expression of the life of Jesus who for 30 years lived the life of a labourer.

To sleep in a room with others when for years you have been used to sleeping in a single room; to have to listen, when you were used to speaking; to share in front of young seminarians how you lived the Word of God during the day – all this is a way to die to yourself and to the individualistic tendencies of your ego, but then to savour the priceless joy of those who live in communion. And it prepares us to be builders of the Church as communion.

Innocent:
I’m Innocent from Burundi . I was ordained five years ago. When I was small, because of the war, my father was killed and we had to escape. As a teenager I met a group of the Word of Life that helped me to forgive those who killed my father. Then I felt the desire to consecrate my life to God. As a priest, I was sent to a parish at risk, destroyed by the war, without even the basic needs. My communion with the other priests who live this life of unity gave me the strength to accept this appointment.

When I arrived at the Priests’ School, the first days were difficult. I had lost everything that gave me a sense of security: language, climate, culture, friends. I felt like a tree in wintertime without leaves.

I come from a country where being a priest is still a social status; here, I discovered the aspect of the Marian priesthood, which is lived out in service to others. One day I felt hurt by one of the other priests. My first reaction was to close up in myself. I felt that he was the one who should apologize. The love of God, which we learn and live out in the school through the art of loving, made me understand that I had to take the first step. I made a concrete act of love towards him and unity was re-established.

In order to feel the presence of Jesus among us, each one must do his own part in order to be living in love. One day we as a group were not considerate of one of our brothers. We were preparing a dance together for a celebration. We immediately understood that it would be hypocritical to go ahead without having Jesus in our midst: we stopped and looked at one another; we made a pact of mercy, promising to see one another with new eyes. We experienced the joy of beginning again and of going ahead with our hearts open to one another.

Through many small episodes I’m learning what it means to have God alone and to build the Church as communion.

Luke:
I’m Luke, a seminarian from Malta . At the end of my second year in the seminary I felt spiritually empty. I felt the call, but I wasn’t happy about it. So I said to God: “If you want me to become a priest, give me a spirituality that supports my vocation and let me feel attracted to it!”

The priest who was giving our spiritual exercises happened to mention a Priests’ School. I naively said: “What do you mean? Besides the seminary, there’s a priests’ school! So why don’t they send everyone to it?”

After our third year, we have an “intermediary year”. Looking into that “Priests’ School,” I learned that a whole Movement is behind it, present in the Church for more than 60 years: a lay movement, guided by a woman! What’s more, this school is integrated in the life of a little town. I felt that there couldn’t be a more ideal place for me and so I asked the rector to send me to this school.

At the school I was asked to work in the garden, which is very big and involves a lot of work. In any case, the more I did the work with love, simply saying “for you, Jesus,” the more I enjoyed it.

One day Lorenzo came to me and asked: “Are you ready to do anything for the Lord?” Full of enthusiasm, I immediately said yes. He sent me to help the bricklayers. I was able to appreciate and live more deeply the sense of that question: “Are you ready to do anything for the Lord?”

It’s difficult to explain: even though I’m the same person, I feel that I’ve changed, that my vocation has been renewed. Before I wasn’t grateful to God for having called me and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do his will; I felt that he could keep the priesthood too, that I didn’t need it. Now I cannot help but be grateful because I experienced his greatness.

What I discovered also is that when I put aside everything (my ideas, my way of doing things, my ego), I am doing what Jesus asked of me when he called me: “Leave everything and follow me.” Now I’ve begun to follow him, not for the joy that following him brings, and not even for the eternal reward of heaven; I follow Jesus because my soul is always more thirsty for that true Love.

Archbishop Joseph Ti-Kang:
I came in contact with this spirituality as a bishop. I had great esteem for the people of the Movement; but I believed that everything was for them or that it was useful for evangelization, not for me….

When my resignation from the diocese was accepted, even though I still had a number of pastoral commitments, I decided to go more deeply into this spirituality by spending a period of time at the Priests’ School. Here I feel like a beginner, a novice at the school of Jesus . I learn, together with everyone else, to become more and more Him, to grow every day in love for Him and for the others, living with Jesus in our midst and embracing Jesus on the cross in order to build unity with everyone.

We bishops are used to speaking, to presiding, to directing, to deciding, while the Lord Jesus is a model of kenosis, of emptying. I realize how important it is for me to learn this self-emptying, in order to welcome, listen, give attention to the others, to be a true server of everyone.

The spirituality of unity helps me very much to live my ministry in these years. Living at Loppiano is a special grace of God, which gives me new inspiration and impetus to go ahead.