A Respected Man

It seems that 99% of what I hear, see, and read about on a daily basis has to do with some form of evil element in society. I might be exagerrating somewhat, but if it's not 99%, it's definetly a high percentage of the daily news. It's always refreshing to hear something positive. I recently read about a man who lived in my lifetime who had a positive influence on the people around him.

In Italy, one achieves notoriety when you are labeled or called un uomo rispettato, a respected man. You don't acquire this title because you're rich or famous or of nobility but because of how you help people, especially the less fortunate than you. One such man was Danilo Dolci who sacrificed much to try to improve the living conditions in Sicily.

He followed in the footsteps of many other great and respected men in history who abandoned their wealthy surroundings to live in substandard conditions and at the same time risking their lives to improve the lives of the destitute.

Danilo was inspired by Don Zeno a Catholic priest who was running Nomadelphia, a Christian commune in Tuscany who's purpose was to take care of war orphans. Though he himself had never been a big follower of the Catholic Church he liked what the priest was doing and quit school at the age of twenty-five to join him. Impressed with his work, Don Zeno had Danilo set up another commune called Ceffarello. While there the army caught up with him and he had to serve compulsory time in 1951.

During this period he became aware that Don Zeno was being harassed by officials who felt he was a Communist. The government wanted to close both communes and put the orphans into asylums. Even the Vatican turned against Don Zeno, calling him the "mad priest" while the government forces took off with many of the commune's children. By 1952 Danilo was ready to move on and work elsewhere and learned early on that he would get nowhere with officials if he tried to reach them in conventional ways.

Throughout his career in Sicily, Dolci used fasting as a method to force the government to make improvements. Aldous Huxley called him the Gandhi of Sicily. He was the single most important force for improvement in the horrendous social conditions rooted in years of exploitation at the hands of dishonest officials, ruthless landlords and the black hand of the Mafia.

This uomo rispettato was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize and was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. The money he received from the Peace Prize was used to address the needs of the poor by establishing a string of social centers.

Keep in mind what Scripture tells us about inheriting eternal life. When asked, Jesus' answer was, "..sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me."