Don Lorenzo Milani: the laity of Barbiana is a synonym of openness and freedom

Next June 26 marks the 50^th anniversary of the death of Don Lorenzo Milani. For the occasion Pope Francis will go on pilgrimage on his tomb, in Barbiana, on Tuesday June 20, celebrating the recurrence a few days in advance. However, another date, in this month that ushers in the summer, is especially consecrated to the figure of the Florentine priest, and is in fact a fundamental stage of his Christian life, second only to his baptism.

It was the 4^th of June. It happened in 1983. Lorenzo Milani had just turned twenty. He had returned to Florence a few months earlier with his family after having lived with them in Milan, where he completed his high-school studies and attended, for a short period, the Brera Academy. On that day the young scion of the Milan family went to the San Michele Visdomini church, a few steps away from Florence’s Cathedral. He asked to see Fr Raffaele Bensi, known for his counsel and spiritual guidance. “Would you like to confess?”, asked the parish priest. “No; I only want to talk. I’m not even a Christian, although I was baptised”, Lorenzo replied. Don Bensi didn’t have much time. He was expected in San Quirico Marinolle, outside the city, for the funeral of a priest who had died prematurely. “I would like to accompany you, if I may”, the young man replied. It was a long way, we don’t know what they said to each other, but Don Bensi preserved a vivid memory of Lorenzo’s words upon their arrival: “As we stood before the bed of the dead young priest, Fr Dario Rossi, in San Quirico, he simply told me: I will take his place.” In fact, five months later he entered the seminary and four years later, on July 13 1947, he was ordained priest.

Don Milani always said that he did not experience a road-to-Damascus conversion. In fact, on the date of June four 1943, he wrote: “United.”

United to whom? To Jesus, and to that which from that moment on, he will refer to as “my wife”, that is, the Church.

“Since then, and until the fall – don Bensi went on – he literally overindulged in the Gospel and in Christ. That young man was immediately headed towards the Absolute, with no middle ground. He was determined to save himself and others, at all costs. Transparent and hard as a diamond, he felt the sudden need to be hurt and to hurt”.

Understanding Don Milani and his works entails focusing on that 4^th of June, on the revolutionary force of the pastoral experiences of Calenzano and Barbiana. It is no coincidence that in the opening remarks for the presentation of the complete works of the Florentine priest Pope Francis made reference to the obedience of the Christian man and to the motherhood of the Church.

That is where his passion for education was born. To him, giving voice to the poor and offering the Word to their consciences were one and the same.

Don Milani strongly emphasised the laicity of his School. But we would be wrong if we understood it in the narrow meaning it is given today, namely, as excluding the religious dimension. Barbiana’s laicity is a synonym of openness and freedom; it means, above all, “do not assume in the boy nothing more than being a man”, as he explained in the Letter to a Teacher. The purpose of the school must lead to “the righteous goal” of helping others.

This lesson of Don Milani has major topical bearing. It’s what Lorenzo had experienced when he was twenty, during that summer when he gorged himself on a far from accommodating God. 
Upon the beginning of his mandate as President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Bassetti remembered the prior of Barbiana “as a brother”, a sign that the Italian Church will continue focusing on education and human promotion. Don Bensi, who was his lifetime spiritual director, said: “Don Milani is more a man of tomorrow than of today. I am sure of this.”

 

(*) director of the Italian Bishops’ Conference national Office for Education, School and University