We’re no longer “maccheroni”” “

“At the beginning we were only ‘the dirty maccheroni’. But now, after over 50 years’ presence in Belgium, it’s the Belgians who are eating the maccheroni; indeed they consume more pasta than the Italians”. That’s how Don Giambattista Bettoni, national delegate for the Italian missions in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Low Countries, sums up the sense of social integration achieved only with great difficulty by the Italians and perhaps not yet entirely realized. The Catholic missions. The Italians in Belgium have now reached their third and fourth generation. There are some 287,000 of them (it’s the largest immigrant community in Belgium and occupies fourth place in the league table of European countries with the most numerous presence of Italian immigrants). 67,3% come from the southern regions (source: Immigration Statistics Dossier 2001). If initially they mainly worked in the mines, now Italians are employed in the steel works, in big industries, in small businesses, in the building industry, in restaurants, and have ascended several rungs on the social ladder. The Italian priests who minister to their fellow-citizens through the Catholic missions ad personam now number 14, most of which do not have their own structures and rely on Belgian parishes. Only in southern Belgium, in Walloon and Flanders do Italians have their own chapel, kindergarten and room “for holding celebrations together”. Participation in ecclesial life (the choice whether to join an Italian mission or a Belgian parish is free) is about average for the context in which they live: not more than 3%, “but our communities are livelier – points out don Bettoni, a priest for 25 years, of which 19 spent in emigration –; some 70/80 regularly attend Mass. And in every district we have local groups that meet weekly for the reading of the Bible”. In dialogue with the local Church. Dialogue and collaboration with the local Church have improved in the course of time, and now the Italian communities participate in the initiatives of solidarity promoted by the diocese (e.g. at Christmas and Lent). Italian priests form part of the presbyteral Council and some laypersons of the various pastoral councils. Close contacts are also maintained with Pro Migrantibus, the episcopal commission responsible for the pastoral ministry among migrants. “In some situations we feel our voice is heard by the Belgian Church – says don Bettoni – in others less so. However, progress is being made”. But it is especially through the sacraments that dialogue and encounter take place: marriages, catechesis for first communions and confirmations, often held in Belgian parishes. “They provide the initial sparks for dialogue – explains don Bettoni –. Real partnership must take place between groups, not at the individual level. It’s a difficult balance to find and maintain: it consists in living the faith according to the specific nature of one’s own culture, but without shutting oneself off from others, because otherwise reciprocal enrichment would be lost. With the Belgian Church that has been fairly easy, because it already had a pluricultural history and tradition (i.e. the Flemish and Walloon components)”. The “temptation of self-segregation is in fact still strong among the Italians; the prejudice they suffered during the early days of emigration is hard for them to forget: “Today the Italians are the ‘best’ among the immigrants. The most recent immigrants to arrive, the Albanians and the Turks, are now the ones that are causing most problems. History teaches that prejudices arise at the beginning of a meeting, but are overcome by time and mutual knowledge”. And with each succeeding generation the sense of belonging to the Italian community risks being forgotten: “The Italian who lives in Belgium feels at his ease, but he is neither Belgian nor Italian. The trouble is he risks losing the richness he derives from his origins. A son who no longer has any Italian culture has gained nothing. However, recently people are beginning to ask themselves where they come from; they study the language and return to Italy to rediscover their own roots”. Patrizia Caiffa