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Villapizzone, "a founding community".

At present five Jesuit fathers living as a family together with other families form part of the community. Founded in 2003, this experience brings together around thirty realities spread throughout Italy. The principle foundation of this life sharing experience is a vocational journey that fosters a common life in a context of trust, honesty, solidarity, hospitality and responsibility.

The roots of this community lie in the post-conciliar atmosphere of the seventies. It is in that rich ambiance of international volunteering, the search for different family models and a Church where men and women, priests and lay people, are living the word "in a common way" as fellow pilgrims, that Villapizzone was born, in the northern suburbs of Milan, an experience that years later will be defined by sociologists as "founding community". Bruno and Enrica Volpi, on their return from Africa where they have spent some time, are looking for a place where they can continue to live the value of solidarity and hospitality, together with others.

It is the same question which is being raised by certain Jesuit fathers who are seeking knowledge and growth and “motivated” by the changing times. "Forty years ago we felt that it was important to live together in community, simply as brothers outside the complexity of large structures, living the simple values of the Gospel and witnessing to them, working for a living like all other people", Fr Silvano Fausti, one of the founders of the community who is also a biblical scholar said. We are looking for some space in an old dilapidated farmhouse, where scoundrels, addicts and other people with social problems had already found refuge. With some hesitation from Cardinal Colombo, the full support of Fr. Arrupe and an agreement with Radice Fossati, owners of the farmhouse, in 1978 the Jesuits and the families who had in the meantime gathered around Volpi were given possession of one of the wings of Villapizzone.

The photo albums manifest broken roofs, dangerous stairs, walls with peeled off paint and smeared with political slogans. Everything had to be built anew even the way of being together. Today, five Jesuit fathers, living as a family together with other families, are part of the community. "We shared our desires and acted upon them and only afterwards did we reflect on our experience, so much so that the "deed on common life " was established ten years after we started", Elisabetta Sormani, married to Tullio and President of Community and Family World explains. Founded in 2003, this association brings together around thirty experiences scattered throughout Italy with Villapizzone as a point of reference.

The principle behind their cohabitation is a vocational journey that promotes a common life in a context of trust, honesty, solidarity, hospitality and responsibility. «Everyone must follow his vocation. For us couples, the Jesuits helped us understand the sacredness of marriage », Elizabeth says. And she explains this with the following example: when someone proposes to pray the lauds together regularly before going to work, the Jesuit fathers always say a firm no, explaining that husband and wife should pray together at home, in their room. "This is the place where they should live their vocation."

Living together with families, the Jesuits explain, helps them to feel normal persons and certainly special "uncles" of the many children who run around the farmhouse. Another initial insight was the desire to live in an open reality, where the community does not become a security, but rather a welcoming space.  Villapizzone is open to everyone: families welcome foster children or young people in difficulty or priests, seminarians and religious who need a time of reflection. But each household is free to decide for itself.  Finally, one also chooses to live honestly. As a result, there is a common fund and families receive a blank cheque every month.

The community - seven families, including the Jesuits - has only one fixed appointment, the monthly meeting, and a snack every day in the courtyard for those who are there, announced by the toll of the bell.

Every day the Jesuits celebrate Mass for those who want to take part. And once a week there is a lectio of the Word of God, which attracts people from all over the diocese (many people follow the lectio through the website www.gesuiti-villapizzone.it). For some years now, some initiatives for young people (La Bussola and il Veliero: one meeting a month) have also been taking place, which are very popular and which focus on listening to the Word of God and on some instructions on Ignatian spirituality (method of prayer, rules of discernment etc.), in an atmosphere of fraternal sharing.

The garden, the halls and the outdoor spaces, surrounded by gigantic cedars of Lebanon, are frequented by the people of the neighborhood, especially mothers - many of them foreigners - who organize birthday parties and play time for the little ones.

Some members of the community work outside, others are stationed permanently in Villapizzone and several are engaged in the “From Hand to Hand” cooperative that sells second-hand items. It has two offices, more than 40 members, engaging a work force of 100 people. It has a small market of used items and antiques with a diversified clientele, from the gypsy to the collector. It is an experience that over the years has strengthened, changed, given birth to other realities, and encountered thousands of people.

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