The inhabitants of spazio + spadoni

Date and Place of Birth: 1967 Firenze

Carlo Andorlini was born in Firenze in 1967. He develops processes of sociocultural innovation in local communities through approaches, tools and methods associated with community work, acting upon the unused or underused “relational potential” between organized systems, citizens and Institutions. He is currently an adjunct lecturer at the Università di Firenze on the degree course “Disegno e gestione degli interventi sociali” at the Cesare Alfieri school; a member of the Ufficio nazionale economia civile di Legambiente and the Comitato tecnico-scientifico nazionale; a member of the Consiglio nazionale del Terzo settore, representing the Autonomie locali as Regione Toscana; and scientific director of several territorial welfare development processes, particularly cultural, proximity and community welfare in various national settings. He collaborates with Third Sector Organizations, Public Bodies and Foundations in Toscana, Liguria, Trentino Alto Adige, Lazio, Umbria, Piemonte, Emilia Romagna and Marche. He serves on the national organizing committee of the “Biennale della Prossimità” and is a member of the Area Ricerca di Biennale. In publishing, he is co-director of the “Newfabric” series published by Pacini editore di Pisa; he serves on the editorial boards of “Rivista impresa sociale” and “Animazione Sociale”.

Carlo is one of the Senior members, those who define the content and methods used to disseminate the message of OPERA M.

She holds degrees in Economic and Social Disciplines and in Psychological Sciences and Techniques. After graduating from the “Scuola Superiore di Counseling e Analisi Transazionale per le professioni di relazione e d’aiuto” at the Centro Berne di Milano, she continued her postgraduate specialist training with a focus on managing Counseling Groups. She subsequently trained as a Coach at the Scuola InCoaching di Milano and earned ACC ICF (International Coaching Federation) credentials. She also completed training as a Family Mediator at ASPIC Milano. She works regularly as a consultant, lecturer and tutor with the “Scuola di Economia Civile”, focusing especially on personal and organizational well-being. Before devoting herself to Counseling and Coaching, she worked for 18 years in multinational companies in consulting, financial services and telecommunications, dealing with Marketing, Digital and Innovation as well as managing teams and complex projects, both in Italy and abroad. Her passion for people’s well-being and the harmonious development of interpersonal relationships led her to devote herself exclusively to Counseling, Coaching and training.

During the 2021 spazio + spadoni Convention “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità”, she held a session with Beatrice Cerrino entitled “Le dimensioni civili ed economiche della vocazione”.

Parish priest of the Pastoral Community of S. Eugenio Martire, in the Diocese of Lucca. He conceived the Premio Letterario Nazionale “Carlo Piaggia” – “La conoscenza vien viaggiando” and, together with local authorities, promotes annual cycles of presentations by emerging authors. In 2007, Dehoniane di Bologna published his essay “La locanda dei racconti. Una pastorale in stile narrativo”, in which he collected all his studies and research on the method of storytelling in formation and in the life of the Church. In 2012 he won first prize at the “XV Premio Città di Empoli – Domenico Rea” with a collection of short stories later published by Ibiskos Ulivieri under the title “Dieci personaggi in cerca di un oste”. With this latest work, he also received second prize at the “Padus Amoenus 2013”. In 2015 he published the biblical novel “Tobias. Il segreto del Re” with Gabrielli Editori of Verona. In the same year, again for Gabrielli Editori, he produced a catechetical aid based on the five paths of the Convegno Ecclesiale di Firenze, entitled “Come cantare in terra straniera? Per stare bene in esilio”. In 2019 he published “Luz. E se la tua città nascondesse molto di più di ciò che vedi?”, issued by Verdechiaro Edizioni.

Don Emanuele and his Parish Community were also protagonists of one of spazio + spadoni’s HIC SUM projects, welcoming Sister Milia for four months. She arrived in Italy in September 2023 and returned to Tanzania to develop the second part of the project.

Dr Wilbroad Aryatwijuka is a lecturer at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Economics and Management.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Management, Master in Business Administration (MBA), Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management (MCIPS-UK), Postgraduate Diploma in Project Planning and Management (DPPM), and Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA).

Author of articles in the fields of Management, Supply Chain Management and Operations Management.

Interests

Charity, humanitarian logistics, research, mentoring, networking, sport and tourism.

Speaker at the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia promoted and supported by spazio + spadoni in Mbarara, Uganda.

Married and mother of five children.

Education

2006/2009 Uganda Martyrs University – Master’s degree in Development Studies in Nkozi. NGO Management

2004/2005 Mbarara University of Science – Postgraduate Diploma in Development Studies and Technology (Project Planning and Management)

1990-1993 Makerere University – Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences

1988-1990 Maryhill High School Uganda – Certificato Avanzato di Education

Work experience

From 2023 to the present – Diocesan Coordinator for Women – Arcidiocesi di Mbarara

From 2017 to the present – Deputy Director of Caritas Mbarara

She was also Coordinator of the Progetto di Sviluppo Integrato della Famiglia Rurale (RUFAIDP), Assistant to the diocesan coordination for women in the Diocesi di Mbarara, Community Development Officer for the diocese,.

Speaker at the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia promoted and supported by spazio + spadoni in Mbarara, Uganda.

Married to Chiara and father of three daughters. He currently lives in the rectory of the Gaggiano community through the diocesan project Famiglie Missionarie km 0. A Fidei donum missionary of the Diocesi di Milano in Peru, he is an educator with Caritas Diocesi di Milano and Fondazione Sacra Famiglia. He came into contact with spazio + spadoni in 2021 for the Convention “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità”.

Date and Place of Birth: 02/05/1957 Borgo San Lorenzo (FI)

He taught physical education at IIS Chini in B.go S. Lorenzo and recently retired. He was a teacher trainer for the USP di Firenze.

Specialist handball coach, UEFA – FIGC football instructor, CONI Toscana technical coordinator, trainer for the Scuola dello Sport Toscana from 2008 to 2012.

In the past, he was a member of the CP Diocesano di Firenze, a catechist, an activity leader at parish summer camps, and a brother of Misericordia di Borgo San Lorenzo, where he served as Provveditore from 2011 to 2020.

He represented the Misericordie Fiorentine on the Consulta Diocesana di Firenze.

Together with his wife Donatella, he went on mission to Bonua, Ivory Coast, in May and November 2016.

He began his journey alongside spazio + spadoni by becoming an Ambassador for the HIC SUM project. Today, Umberto is one of the Senior members, namely those who define the content and methods used to spread the message of OPERA M.

Every week he reads biblical scholar Carlo Miglietta’s commentary on the Sunday Gospel to enrich the column “Buona Misericordia a tutti!”, available in the online magazine “Mission” and on the spazio + spadoni YouTube page.

Born in Berbenno in Valtellina, he studied at the Pontificio Seminario Regionale di Pio XI in Assisi. He was ordained a priest in 1998 and incardinated in the Diocese of Gubbio.

As a priest, he held various positions, including parish priest of Scheggia and Pascelupo in the Diocese of Gubbio; parish priest of Piscobamba in the Diocese of Huari, Peru; and assistant at the parish of Shilla, also in the Diocese of Huari, Peru.

He has lived in Peru since 2001 and served as rector of the diocesan seminary in the Diocese of Huari from 2007 to 2019.

Appointed auxiliary bishop of Huari, Peru, by Pope Francis, he received episcopal ordination on 11 February 2020 in Huari Cathedral. Father Giorgio is a member of Operazione Mato Grosso.

Secretary General of Misericordia di Camaiore e Lido.

Head of the National Civil Service for Confederazione Nazionale Misericordie d’Italia.

Economista, Docente all’Università Tor Vergata Roma. Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

After earning a diploma in mechanics from the E. Fermi-G. Giorgi Technical and Vocational Institute, he continued his career in three companies operating in different areas of mechanical engineering. As his experience grew, he took on design and full management roles, including installation sites abroad. During a period of significant professional growth, he decided to request a two-year leave of absence to share with his wife an experience in West Africa, in Burkina Faso, as a fidei donum lay missionary sent by the Diocesi di Lucca. During this period, he managed a vocational school offering four technical disciplines: tailoring, carpentry, mechanics and welding. On returning to Italy, he and a group of volunteers became involved in a social farming project in collaboration with Caritas Diocesana di Lucca. This led to the creation of the organic social agricultural cooperative “Calafata”, of which he is a founding member. Calafata takes its name from “caulking”, the work carried out by master caulkers who, with their expertise, rope and pitch, made boats watertight and safe in storms, giving them “new life”. The project’s main goal is to ensure the employment inclusion of vulnerable people while protecting the local area, following the principles of civil economy and care for the community. In 2022, the cooperative celebrated its first ten years.

Following the 2022 spazio + spadoni Convention, in which Marco participated as a speaker, he became involved in spazio + spadoni projects, particularly in exploring social enterprise and teaching agricultural techniques.

Nathalie Becquart is a French religious sister of the Institut La Xavière, Missionnaires du Christ Jésus, a women’s congregation inspired by Ignatian spirituality. In February 2021, Pope Francis appointed her undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, making her the first woman with voting rights in the Synod. A graduate in entrepreneurship from HEC Paris, she volunteered in Lebanon for one year and then worked for two years as a marketing and communications consultant. In 1995, she joined the Congregation of the Xavières; after one year as a postulant in Marseille and two years in the novitiate on the outskirts of Paris, she spent three years on mission in working-class neighbourhoods with the national Scouts de France team, where she was responsible for the Plein Vent programme. She studied theology and philosophy at Centre Sèvres and sociology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. After studying theology at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, she specialised in ecclesiology and conducted research on synodality. She was director of the National Service for Youth Evangelisation and Vocations of the French Bishops’ Conference from 2012 to 2018 and has been a consultant to the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops since 2019.

Date and Place of Birth: 30/04/1963 Bologna

Associate professor at the Dipartimento di Scienze per l’economia e l’impresa, he teaches Agricultural and Food Policy, Economics of Agri-food Enterprises and Economics of Agricultural Markets. His work focuses particularly on quality economics in the agri-food system, with special attention to promoting traditional products and protecting geographical indications. His research also concerns value chains and alternative networks between production and consumption, as well as agricultural and agri-food policies.

Since the birth of spazio + spadoni, Giovanni has been an invaluable point of reference. He designed training for the sisters on social enterprise for the HIC SUM project, spoke at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention and collaborated on Economy of Francesco programmes.

Researcher in Political and Social Philosophy at the Università Bicocca di Milano. Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

For almost her entire career, Carla Benedetti provided direct care to adults with disabilities. She worked for ASL Toscana Centro as an OSS (health and social care worker). Always passionate about fiction and real-life stories, she describes herself as an avid reader and has written and published a novel and several short stories. She is an expert in autobiographical methodologies, having completed the two-year programme at the Libera Università dell’Autobiografia di Anghiari, directed by Professor Duccio Demetrio. At LUA, she also attended a seminar in Narrative Medicine. For years, she led Creative Writing, Editing and Autobiographical Writing workshops for the Associazione Officina del Talento di Empoli. In 2015, she joined the Associazione Spazio Etico and currently serves on its board as secretary. For the past five years, she has been interested in Nonviolent Communication and has followed, and continues to follow, training inspired by Marshall Rosenberg’s method. In 2021, she attended the introductory “Lead Your Life” course, based on the IFS (Internal Family Systems) theory developed by Richard C. Schwartz, and she still participates in a practice group. She is a member of the editorial staff of “Laborcare Journal”, where she edits the “La Libreria” column. In 2019, her then twenty-three-year-old daughter experienced an acute medical event. Carla has been her caregiver ever since. Spazio Etico took part in the first two spazio + spadoni Conventions and has continued to enrich and share the space ever since.

Marta Bernardeschi is Vice President of Associazione Spazio Etico. A graduate in Pedagogy and Sociology, she worked for 32 years at ASL 11 di Empoli, where she headed the U.O. Sistema Informativo and the U.O. Epidemiologia. She later began working as an independent professional while continuing as an adjunct lecturer in the subjects listed above in university degree courses for healthcare professions at the Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia di Firenze. She now works exclusively with Associazione Spazio Etico, promoting its aims through the training it offers to professionals in the health and social care sectors.

Councillor of the Comune di Capannori (LU), responsible for the environment, youth policies, culture, housing policies and the peace observatory.

In 2022, she took part in Economy of Francesco in Assisi with spazio + spadoni.

Date and Place of Birth: 14/12/1967 Lucca

Priest of the Diocesi di Lucca. A passionate expert in art history and cultural heritage.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Date and Place of Birth: 07/02/1957 Assisi (PG)

He graduated from the Istituto Magistrale di Stato “Ruggero Binghi” in Assisi in the 1975/1976 school year. He completed his military service from August 1977 to July 1978 with the 152° Battaglione Fanteria Sassari, based in Sassari, and later with the Comando Militare di Zona di Perugia as a serviceman assigned to the Ufficio Presidio.

A primary school teacher from 1979 to the present at the Direzione Didattica di Castiglione del Lago, Umbertide and the Istituto Comprensivo Statale per Ciechi di Assisi. He served as president and member of the Consiglio d’Istituto and, for two years, as deputy to the head teacher.

From 1977 to 2013, he held various positions on the board of the Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Palazzo, serving as its president for several years.

President of the Comitato Locale della Croce Rossa Italiana for more than 12 years, until August 2003; special adviser to the national president of the C.R.I., Maria Pia Garavaglia; extraordinary commissioner of the Comitato Regionale dell’Umbria della C.R.I. in 1997 during the earthquake that struck Umbria; and governor of the Confraternita della Misericordia di Assisi from September 2003 to 2023.

President of the Pro Loco di Palazzo from 1999 to 2013 and, for three years, auditor of the Unione Nazionale Pro Loco d’Italia Comitato Regionale dell’Umbria.

Member of the parish pastoral council and the council for economic affairs of the Parrocchia “Madonna delle Grazie e Santa Tecla” in Palazzo di Assisi.

Instituted as an acolyte on 10 May 2008, he served at the Parrocchia Madonna delle Grazie e Santa Tecla di Palazzo in Assisi.

On 18 October 2014, he was ordained a deacon of the Diocesi di Assisi, Nocera Umbra e Gualdo Tadino and, by appointment of the bishop, carried out pastoral work in the Parrocchia “Madonna delle Grazie e Santa Tecla” in Palazzo di Assisi.

Enrolled at the Istituto Teologico di Assisi from the 2018/2019 academic year.

Ordained a priest on 11 September 2022 in the Cattedrale di San Rufino in Assisi by Mons. Domenico Sorrentino, Archbishop of Assisi, Nocera Umbra, Gualdo Tadino and Foligno, with Mons. Franco Agostinelli, Corrector of the Confederazione Nazionale delle Misericordie d’Italia, as concelebrant.

Appointed supporting parish priest from 1 November 2022 for the parishes of San Pietro Apostolo in Petrignano di Assisi, Madonna delle Grazie e Santa Tecla in Palazzo di Assisi and Madonna del Rosario e San Carlo in Torchiagina di Assisi.

On 10 July 2023, the Bishop of Assisi appointed him Corrector and Ecclesiastical Assistant of the Confraternita della Misericordia di Assisi and Regional Corrector of the Misericordie dell’Umbria.

Born in 1972, he is a priest of the Arcidiocesi di Lucca. He earned a doctorate in Biblical Sciences from the Pontificio Istituto Biblico in 2006. He is a permanent professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Pontificia Università Urbaniana and a visiting professor of New Testament Greek at the Pontificio Istituto Biblico. He is the author of the monographs L’elogio di sé in Cristo, L’utilizzo della periautologia nel contesto di Filippesi 3,1 – 4,1 (Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 2006) and L’analisi retorica delle lettere paoline. Un’introduzione (San Paolo, 2011), as well as the commentaries Lettera ai Galati (Città Nuova, 2009) and Lettera ai Filippesi (San Paolo, 2010). He writes biblical articles and reviews, with particular attention to the Pauline writings.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Date and Place of Birth: 13/12/1988 Repubblica Democratica del Congo

He graduated in “Economics and Management” from the Université Évangélique en Afrique in Bukavu. In Loppiano, Italy, he attended several courses in the Economy of Communion, Biblical Economics and Civil Economy. Rodrigue speaks French, English, Italian and Swahili.

For spazio + spadoni, he monitors the development of social enterprises for the various HIC SUM projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and promotes the Forums on the riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia.

He organised the Forum on the riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on 18, 19 and 20 September 2024.

He lives in Florence. He works as a journalist on the editorial staff of the weekly “Toscana Oggi” and contributes to Avvenire; he has also worked in radio, television, news agencies and press offices. Among other works, he has published “Il sindaco santo” on the life of Giorgio La Pira, a volume on don Lorenzo Milani and other twentieth-century Tuscan “Uomini di Vangelo”, and a book on Benigni and religion entitled “Quando un comico parla di Dio”. He also writes for the theatre.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

He is Associate Professor of Development Economics at the Università di Firenze and President of the degree programme in Economic Development, International Health and Social Cooperation and Conflict Management. Since 2010, he has been a fellow of the Human Development and Capabilities Association. His research focuses on child poverty and well-being, the capability approach, international cooperation, collective action, disability, the evolution of informal activity, the clustering of small and medium-sized enterprises and local development. He is scientific director of Laboratorio ARCO, Action Research for Co-Development. He is the author or co-author of 13 books and has published extensively in national and international journals.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

A Jesuit and Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia since 2015. He earned a degree in Philosophy from the Pontificia facoltà di filosofia Aloisianum di Gallarate, a bachelor’s degree in Theology from the “San Luigi” section of the Pontificia facoltà teologica dell’Italia meridionale in Naples, and a degree in Literature and Philosophy from the Università di Bologna with a thesis on the Book of Wisdom, which he later published. He entered the Society of Jesus on 22 November 1966. He was ordained a priest on 21 June 1975 and made his solemn profession on 12 June 1982. He served as the Provincial’s delegate for vocational ministry from 1981 to 1983 and from 1988 to 2007; superior of the Residentia “B. A. Baldinucci” in Florence from 1988 to 1995; director of the Centro di Spiritualità “Villa San Giuseppe” in Bologna from 1995 to 2007; director of a spiritual exercises course for the bishops of Emilia-Romagna in 2007; consultor of the Italian Province and the Provincial’s delegate for youth ministry from 2003 to 2007; rector of the Aloisianum philosophical scholasticate in Padua from 2007 to 2013; and rector of the Patavina Residentia Antonianum and director of the Centro Antonianum per la formazione del laicato di Padova from 2007 to 2015. He has taught at various institutes and faculties in Veneto and Emilia-Romagna. A specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, he has founded and leads several associations: Associazione Amici del Medio Oriente Onlus, the Maranàtha community of families and Tavola Pellegrini Medio Oriente. Since 1990, he has organised and led pilgrimages to Ignatian sites in Spain, Paris and Rome.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

A Law graduate from the Università degli Studi di Siena, he held managerial positions at a leading banking institution. He is married and the father of two children. He has always been interested in issues concerning racial and religious differences, particularly the relationship between Christianity and Islam.

Member of the Ordine Secolare dei Carmelitani Scalzi.

He has served as a missionary several times in Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These experiences led him to write three books.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention. Promotore di un progetto HIC SUM in Siria.

Elena Bongiovanni is a professional educator who graduated from the Università del Alessandria. She qualified as a Professional Systemic-Relational Counsellor at the Istituto Eteropoiesi di Torino, while also training as an Integrated Transformative Expressive Counsellor with a relational focus. In 2019, she completed training as a group facilitator using Active Expressive Methods and Playback Theatre, earning an Advanced Level Diploma from the Scuola Italiana di Playback Theatre, affiliated with the Playback Centre in New York. Trained in services addressing gender-based violence and power dynamics, she has worked for several years at a Di.Re network anti-violence centre for women who have experienced violence. She provides training and individual and group programmes on contact with anger and aggression, emotions and reactions. She is a founding member of Associazione HumanArt, which offers people space and time and promotes their well-being through art, photography, the body, creativity and counselling. Since 2019, she has been a facilitator in psychogenealogy and family constellations with an imaginal approach. In 2022, she specialised in the advanced-level Metodo PI, “Integrated emotional-behavioural psychobiology and emotional-behavioural assessment in helping relationships”. That same year, she became a Soul Contact Massage practitioner, specialising at the Centro di Formazione Soul Contact di Milano.

Date and Place of Birth: 05/03/1957 Borgo San Lorenzo (FI)

Donatella has walked alongside spazio + spadoni since the Movement was founded. She was an English teacher and is a volunteer with the Confraternita di Misericordia di Borgo San Lorenzo.

In March 2016, she took part in a mission at “Missione Orionina” in Bonoua, Ivory Coast, returning there in November of the same year.

“What do I think of spazio + spadoni? I believe that entrusting projects to sisters, and therefore to women, represents a prophetic vision for putting the Gospel message into practice”.

“For my future, I wish to live in the light of the Gospel of Jesus and His mercy”.

Donatella and her husband Umberto are the voices and faces of the “Buona Misericordia a tutti” column, reading the Sunday Gospel and the commentary by biblical scholar Carlo Miglietta.

She graduated in Education Sciences, specialising as an “Expert in Training Processes”, from the Università degli Studi di Genova. She further studied autobiographical storytelling and listening methods, specialised in Educational Supervision and became an Anti-Violence Services Practitioner. She earned a master’s degree from the systemic-relational counselling institute Eteropoiesi di Torino. She specialised in Systemic Conflict Mediation and in the use of Metodo-PI, integrated emotional-behavioural psychobiology.

A highly experienced nurse with a passion for what Care can convey. He qualified as a nurse in 1983 and later graduated in Pedagogy, Psychology and Nursing and Midwifery Sciences. He worked in intensive care and emergency medical services and is currently a coordinating nurse in the medical department of Ospedale San Jacopo di Pistoia. He teaches on the Nursing degree programme at the Università di Firenze and in OSS courses.

Speaker at the first “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Conventions.

Date and Place of Birth: 1958 Dovandola (FC)

A professional journalist, political scientist and expert on religious affairs, since 2011 he has directed the cultural and religious affairs magazine “Il Regno”, published by the Dehonian publishing centre in Bologna. He joined its editorial staff in 1981 after contributing to it from 1979. In 1993, he became editor-in-chief of the «Attualità» section and, in 2005, deputy director. After completing classical secondary school, he studied under the philosophers Nicola Matteucci at the Università di Bologna and Italo Mancini in Urbino. His long collaboration with Professor Arturo Parisi introduced him to political science. He collaborated with the Istituto Cattaneo di Bologna. From 1990 and for more than a decade, he was a member of the scientific committee of Fondazione Zancan for the study of volunteering in Italy. He conceived and edited the Chiesa in Italia yearbooks from 1992 to 2014. He studied the relationship between monasticism and secular life, editing a volume on the subject in 1994 that was also translated in Brazil. He has written several essays published in collective works, including Conflitti, riconoscimento, convivenza delle religioni (2005); I Cristiani e la vita pubblica in Italia e in Europa (2003); Politica in Italia (2001 edition), published in Italy and the United States; and Laici e servizio al mondo (1994). From 1998 to 2007, he led the “Incontri di Camaldoli”, annual study seminars organised by “Il Regno” that became a recognised forum for discussion on Christian inspiration in relation to Italian and European public life.

In addition to Il Regno, Gianfranco Brunelli has written for several newspapers and periodicals, including Il Corriere della Sera, La Stampa, L’Unità, Avvenire, Il Mulino, Polis, Vida Nueva and Herder Korrespondenz. Vatican Radio regularly interviews him on major political and religious issues. Also on civic and religious matters, he collaborated with Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini from 1996 to 2002 and Cardinal Achille Silvestrini from 1991 to 2006. He served as a special adviser during both Prodi governments (1996-1998 and 2006-2008) and during Prodi’s presidency of the European Commission. Active in publishing, he was a member of the board of the Dehonian publishing centre from 2003 until May 2014. Since 2005, he has conceived and organised major art exhibitions at the Musei San Domenico devoted to Marco Palmezzano, Silvestro Lega, Guido Cagnacci, Antonio Canova, I fiori, Melozzo da Forlì, Wildt, Novecento, Liberty, Boldini, Piero della Francesca, Art Déco, Eterno e Tempo and Ottocento, alongside exhibitions dedicated to “Maceo Casadei. Gli anni romani”, “L’arte della pubblicità. I Manifesti”, “Giuseppe Palanti” and “L’officina neoclassica”. Since 12 October 2015, he has been a columnist for Il Sole 24 Ore. From 2009 to 2017, he was a member, by patriarchal appointment, of the general council of Fondazione «Giorgio Cini» in Venice. Since 2010, he has coordinated the national scientific committee of IntesaSanPaolo’s Progetto cultura for Turin, Milan, Vicenza, Florence and Naples. In particular, he conceived the Gallerie d’Italia at Piazza Scala, with its nineteenth- and twentieth-century museums; he collaborated on reorganising the museums at Palazzo Zevallos-Stigliano in Naples and Palazzo Leone-Montanari in Vicenza. More recently, he worked on establishing the Centro nazionale della fotografia in Turin; relaunching the Euploos project to catalogue and place online all the drawings of the Gabinetto disegni e stampe degli Uffizi; defining the Progetto Restituzioni 2014-2016; and reorganising Casa Manzoni in Milan. He curated L’Italia e gli Italiani, a photographic exhibition produced with Magnum for the 150th anniversary of Italian unification and selected by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a representative cultural event for the 2012 London Olympics. He was general coordinator of La Grande Guerra. Arte, luoghi e propaganda, inaugurated on 31 March 2015 at venues in Milan, Naples and Vicenza. He also coordinated exhibitions at the Gallerie d’Italia in Piazza Scala devoted to Francesco Hayez, Bellotto e Canaletto and Romanticismo. Since December 2017, he has been an honorary academician of the Rubiconia Accademia dei Filopatridi. On 12 March 2019, he received a Global Fine Art Award in New York for the exhibition “L’Eterno e il Tempo tra Michelangelo e Caravaggio” (Best Renaissance, Baroque, Old Masters, Dynasties – Group or Theme).

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Economist and historian of economic thought. Interested in biblical studies, ethics and literature, he is an expert on religious congregations, volunteering and mission-driven organisations. Professor of Political Economy at LUMSA and visiting professor at the Istituto Universitario Sophia di Loppiano, he and his colleague Stefano Zamagni promote and co-founded the SEC – Scuola di Economia Civile. He coordinates the scientific committee of “The Economy of Francesco”, which is bringing young people from around the world together to reflect and develop proposals for a change in the economic and social paradigm. He is a columnist for Avvenire.

Date and Place of Birth: 1951 Borgo a Mozzano (LU)

He has always lived in Borgo a Mozzano, except for a brief period in Oneta, his family’s village of origin. Married to Annagrazia Barsotti, he has two married daughters and three granddaughters who live in Borgo a Mozzano and Oneta. For more than thirty years, he worked as human resources manager at one of the area’s leading companies, now Schott Italvetro. Always active in social and political life, he seized important opportunities through sacrifice and commitment. His activities ranged from parish work, the S. Vincenzo dè Paoli and Circolo Unione to the re-establishment of the Confraternita di Misericordia di Borgo a Mozzano, of which he became governor in 1971 and which he led until 1995. In 1981, he helped arrange for the Misericordia to take responsibility for the Convento di San Francesco del Borgo, which has housed the Centro Accoglienza Anziani since 23 January 1983. As a member of the Misericordia, he joined the Consiglio Nazionale della Confederazione delle Misericordie d’Italia in 1985 and served on its presidency council from 1989 to 1995. A municipal councillor in Borgo a Mozzano for many years, he was elected mayor on 23 April 1995 in the first direct election for that office. Re-elected for a second term on 13 June 1999, he governed the municipality until 13 June 2004. After returning to the Misericordia di Borgo a Mozzano as deputy governor and to the Consiglio di Presidenza delle Misericordie, he was elected president of the Confederazione Nazionale delle Misericordie d’Italia on 6 October 2007, remaining in office until February 2011. In 2014, he was re-elected governor of the Misericordia di Borgo a Mozzano, a position he still holds. Among his other roles, he served as councillor and then president of Lucca Holding SpA from 2004 to 2007. Since July 2010, he has been a CNEL councillor and, since 2011, a councillor of the Provincia di Lucca, after standing as a candidate for its presidency. He is a member of the scientific committee of Fondazione Giovanni Paolo II di Fiesole. In 2011, with his friend Marcello Martini, he published Dal Serchio al Don solo andata, a historical study of the Alpine soldiers from the Borgo a Mozzano area who died or went missing during the Russian campaign of 1941-1943.

Speaker at the first spazio + spadoni Conventions. The Misericordia di Borgo a Mozzano carried out the HIC SUM project with two sisters from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is currently supporting Sister Ansila’s project in East Timor.

He has been a priest of the Church of Lucca since 1975 and served as vicar general from 2005 to 2009. He is currently parish priest of Varignano in Viareggio and, since 2005, director of the Archivio Storico Diocesano di Lucca. A psychology graduate, he teaches spiritual theology and human sciences at the Studio Teologico Interdiocesano in Camaiore (S.T.I.) and the Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose di Pisa. He is spiritual director of the Seminario Inter Diocesano di Pisa. He has published several essays on psychology, sociology and spirituality. His works include La preghiera del cuore nella spiritualità dell’Oriente cristiano (1997), Lettura pastorale della Prima lettera ai Corinzi (2003) and Ospitare la vita. Sentieri di fede, di interiorità, di pace (2008).

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Fr Pascal is a religious brother and member of the Congregazione dei Frati della Carità. He is responsible for the «Simama» centre, which cares for people with disabilities, mental illness and all forms of impairment. His experience at the Forum in Kisangani inspired many people to learn how to care for those suffering from different conditions and to show mercy towards people with disabilities and mental health problems.

Speaker at the Kisangani Forum on the riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia.

Originally from Schio, in the province of Vicenza. After completing secondary school, he immediately began an orientation programme with the Comboni missionaries in Thiene. He continued his studies at the Faculty of Theology in Florence while completing his novitiate in Venegono Superiore. After ordination, he took an English-language course and then travelled to South Sudan to learn Nuer at Holy Trinity Parish. His duties in those territories were highly significant. Among other roles, he was provincial councillor of the Comboni missionaries from 2012 to 2019 and secretary of their provincial council from 2014 to 2016. He was eventually appointed bishop of the Diocese of Rumbek, which had been without a bishop since 2011, when Monsignor Cesare Mazzolari died one week after the announcement of the country’s independence.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Degree in Nuclear Physics from UNIPV.

Two children, Giorgio and Teresa, and their little dog Ettore.

For more than ten years, a researcher in “mathematical complexity theory” and Mathematical Models.

Several years at ST Microelectronics.

Author of scientific articles on applied mathematics,

For several years, adjunct lecturer in mathematics at UNICT.

Finally, for more than twenty years, Scientific Director of the Consorzio Universitario Mediterraneo Orientale di Noto.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

I am now an inhabitant of spazio + spadoni; I continue to study “freely” and cultivate my vegetable garden.

She teaches Economics and Law in upper secondary school. She collaborates with the Scuola di Economia Civile, where she is the contact person for the school sector, and recently earned a doctorate from the Istituto Universitario Sophia to develop teaching tools aimed at introducing Civil Economy in schools. She has always worked in adolescent education and contributes to specialist journals.

A language teacher, translator and cultural mediator who has lived in Italy for sixteen years, he founded the Associazione Italia Marocco per l’Amicizia e la Cooperazione (AIMAC). For years, the association has promoted a message of peace and intercultural encounter while working every day to foster a more transparent and respectful relationship between institutions and immigrants. He is a founding member of the Centro per il Dialogo Interreligioso di Agliati, a consultant to the Centro Culturale Islamico di Pescia and a member of the Federazione delle Comunità Islamiche della Toscana.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Born in Turin and married to Marina, he studied theology in Genoa and biblical studies in Rome, and teaches religion in secondary schools. He has translated several books from French, English and Spanish, works as a Holy Land guide and enjoys mountain trekking.

A member of the Misericordia di Certaldo and its Magistrato, he was born in Florence in 1968, a child of the student revolution—although his mother, a teacher whose family had lived in Certaldo for generations, was on the side of those being challenged. He lived in Certaldo until adolescence and then completed his studies in Florence. At the beginning of his career, he followed in his father’s footsteps and pursued a military career as an artillery officer. He has worked as a financial adviser for twenty years. His passion for writing has resulted in three novels. He adapted his first novel, La Scelta (Sassoscritto Editore, 2012), into a stage production in 2019. L’amore non basta (Sef, 2017) was his second work of fiction. L’ultima maschera (Sef, 2020) is a new and incisive attempt to explore the paths of the human soul, particularly the female soul.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Governor of the Misericordia “San Francesco” di Massa and the new provincial president of Confcommercio Massa Carrara. Since 1999, he has owned Bar La Perla in the centre of Massa. He is a respected entrepreneur in the hospitality sector and a well-known figure in the voluntary sector.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Member of the Comunità delle Beatitudini di Noto, ordained a priest in 2017.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

Since 2014, she has been a member of the board of the association “To Groove Pistoia”.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Date and Place of Birth: 15/12/1947 Firenzuola (FI)

Claudio worked from 1969 to 2004 at the Consorzio di Bonifica Romagna Occidentale, which replaced the Consorzio di Bonifica del Bacino dell’Alto Santerno when it was dissolved in 1991.

From 1975 to 1995, he served continuously as a municipal councillor in Firenzuola, also holding the position of council executive; from 2004 to 2009, he was mayor.

He still sings with the Coro Alpino del Mugello and is also a member of its board.

From 1996 to 2000, he was a councillor of the Confederazione Nazionale delle Misericordie d’Italia. For many years, he served on the Magistrato della Misericordia di Firenzuola and was its governor from 2015 to 2023. His relationship with spazio + spadoni began in 2021, when the Misericordia di Firenzuola offered to welcome Sister Maria from Nigeria and train her through the HIC SUM project, becoming one of its Ambassadors.

Today, Claudio is one of the Senior members, those who define the content and methods used to spread the message of OPERA M.

He graduated from the Università degli Studi di Torino in November 2006 and specialised in Political Philosophy and International Relations. He was a researcher at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici from 2008 to 2013, holding seminars on Noam Chomsky, anarchism and political liberalism. He contributed to Antonio Polichetti’s two books “Quo vadis, Italia?” and “La grande dittatura, l’era dell’economicismo totalitario”. He wrote the thesis “La Chiesa ai tempi di J. Daniélou”. He is currently an independent researcher at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici and a member of its board.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Regional President of FRATRES Sicilia-Organo Territoriale della Consociazione Nazionale dei Gruppi Donatori di sangue FRATRES delle Misericordie d’Italia. A former member of the Collegio dei Revisori dei Conti Nazionale FRATRES, she has been a volunteer and donor of blood and blood components for twenty-three years. Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordie” Convention.

Contact person for the Commissione Nazionale Cooperazione tra i popoli MAC. Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

Claudia del Rosso was a fidei donum lay missionary for the Diocesi di Lucca in Burkina Faso. She is currently secretary at the diocese’s Centro Missionario. Her work covers cooperation, global citizenship education, missionary outreach and training. She is a member of the Consiglio missionario nazionale, representing lay members of the CMD in central Italy; she serves on the national council of the “Festival della Missione” as representative of returned lay missionaries, Missio km 0; and she is part of the coordinating team of the Commissione missionaria della Regione Toscana.

Date and Place of Birth: 19/01/1982 Tivoli (RM)

She graduated in Audiometric Techniques from the Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” and is enrolled in the degree programme in Developmental Neuropsychomotor Therapy. She currently works as an audiometric technician. An IRC- and ARES118-accredited BLSD instructor, advanced-level rescuer trainer for the Misericordie d’Italia and a volunteer with the Misericordia di Villa Adriana since January 2015. In 2018, she was elected GeMMe representative to the Consiglio Nazionale for the central and southern regions. Since September 2020, she has been an Ambassador of spazio + spadoni and tutor for the HIC SUM project at the Misericordia di Villa Adriana, which welcomed Sister Beatrice.

Member of the Misericordia di Rosolini and President of spazio + spadoni Sicilia.

Date and Place of Birth: 22/11/1960

Rosita works with the Ufficio Missionario Diocesano di Lucca.

Mission experiences

2 trips to Burkina Faso with the Ufficio Missionario Diocesano di Lucca

2 trips to Zambia with the Suore Francescane di Assisi

Experiences with spazio + spadoni

Convention “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” 2021, San Cerbone

Convention “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” 2022, San Cerbone

Economy of Francesco 2022, Assisi

Training for French-speaking sisters on the Works of Mercy, 2022, Loppiano

Convention “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” 2023, Noto

What do you think of spazio + spadoni

It is a space where great hearts meet.

Future projects

To return where people smile despite owning nothing.

An Italian priest and founder of Associazione Meter, he is known for his fight against paedophilia and his work to protect children in Italy and around the world. He studied philosophy and theology at the Facoltà “San Paolo” di Catania, then completed his education at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana in Rome, graduating in Church History. He was ordained a priest in the Cattedrale di Noto on 3 September 1991. In 1992, he became professor of Church History at the Noto branch of the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome. In 1995, he was appointed parish priest of Madonna del Carmine in Avola. Driven by a passion for technology, in the early 1980s he accidentally discovered a website in Rome containing images of abused children and decided to devote himself to combating child sexual abuse material. After creating Telefono Arcobaleno, he founded the Meter association in 1996 and began his campaign against paedophilia, an activity that made him internationally known. He has promoted several initiatives, including the Giornata in Memoria dei Bambini Vittime dello Sfruttamento, della Violenza e dell’Indifferenza and the Moratoria Internazionale contro la Pedofilia. The association’s centres receive support from the CEI. According to some of his statements, don Fortunato became closely involved with the tragedy of paedophilia in 1995 following several events in his parish in Avola, including the attempted murder of an eleven-year-old girl, which revealed the abuse she had suffered, and the suicide of a fourteen-year-old boy who had also experienced abuse.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

Date and Place of Birth: 1963, Bergamo

A Pedagogy graduate from the Università degli Studi di Verona, he served as managing director and president of the Consorzio Nazionale della Cooperazione Sociale, Italy’s largest network of social enterprises. He founded Welfare Italia Impresa Sociale, which develops services for families and inclusive social well-being, and served as its managing director and president. A consultant and trainer by education and vocation, he has taught at various Italian universities. He was managing director of “On Srl Impresa Sociale” and president of Vita’s “Advisory Board”. He is currently president of the participatory foundation “Communia”, the Rete dei Beni Comuni, and president of “è-one abitare generativo”. He is a member of the scientific committee of the Archivio della Generatività Sociale research group. He teaches at the Scuola di Economia Civile, bringing his experience of social enterprises both in generating innovative and transformative ideas and in field-testing new models of action.

He was editorial director of EMI Editrice Missionaria Italiana and teaches Publishing Professions at the Università di Pavia. He specialised in public ethics issues connected with new professions and new technologies. For more than ten years, he was a regular contributor to the monthly “Vita non profit”, focusing particularly on cooperation and culture. A professional journalist and writer, he was among the founders of the “Movimento No Slot” in 2011 and has devoted investigations and reports to gambling.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

Born on the island of Lussino in 1949, he is a highly active member of the Comunità degli Esuli giuliano-dalmati del Canada. For this commitment, he received the Premio Internazionale ANVGD del Giorno del Ricordo in 2009. A full professor at the University of Toronto, he teaches in the Renaissance Studies programme and also holds appointments in the Department of Italian Studies, the Centre for Medieval Studies, the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, the Centre for the Study of Religion and the Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies. He has held various administrative positions at the University of Toronto and in academia. He has served as president of several academic associations in Canada and the United States, including the world’s two largest associations for Renaissance studies, the RSA and the SCSC. He has received numerous honours, awards and distinctions in Canada, the United States and Italy for both his academic scholarship and his volunteer work within the Italian community abroad. His publications include 14 monographs or essay collections; seven book-length translations from Italian into English; two critical editions of Italian manuscripts in book form; seven book-length bibliographies; 59 articles in scholarly journals and essay collections; more than 100 book reviews; and 13 original poems. He has organised 32 international conferences in Canada and Italy, as well as 19 sessions at conferences of various North American academic societies, and has delivered 109 papers at conferences or lectures hosted by universities and academic societies in Canada, the United States, Italy, France, Spain, England, Brazil and Australia. He is founder and editor of an international journal on confraternity studies since 1990; editor of an international journal of Italian studies since 2003; editor of Toronto’s Julian-Dalmatian bulletin since 1991; and founder and editor of a book series since 2002. For many years, he has worked pro bono within the Italian immigrant community in Canada, holding various positions and carrying out numerous projects, particularly within the Julian-Dalmatian community in North America. On 10 February 2009, during the presentation of the Premio Internazionale ANVGD, he was a guest of President Napolitano at the Quirinale, where the President signed the decree awarding Konrad Eisenbichler the honour of “Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica Italiana”.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

With a degree in Economics and Education Sciences, I taught at several upper secondary schools in Turin.

She currently devotes herself fully to volunteering, both in the parish and in education, teaching Italian as a second language to migrants. Since October 2021, she has written the newsletter “La Chiesa che ispira – Spazio di riflessione sulla Chiesa Cattolica, oggi” and has been involved in the national campaigns “Stop smartphone e social sotto i 14 e 16 anni”.

Since 1995, she has worked as a hospital nurse for ASL 11 Empoli in various settings, and since 2001 she has worked in training, also for ASL 11 Empoli, beginning as a tutor on the UNIFI Nursing degree programme based in Empoli, where she remained until 2005. In 2001, she obtained a Master’s degree in “Organisational Psycho-Sociodrama” from CTC – Centro di Formazione Manageriale e Gestione d’Impresa of the Camera di Commercio di Bologna. Since 2002, she has led communication and ethics workshops using the sociodrama method. In 2004, she completed an advanced course in Bioethics at the Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata” – Istituto Giano di Roma. In the 2002–2003 academic year, she began teaching nursing and ethics on the Nursing degree programme and professional Master’s programmes at UNIFI, as well as supervising theses; since 2002, she has also taught bioethics and professional ethics on OSS courses. Since 2004–2005, she has spoken and taught at seminars, courses and conferences on bioethical issues and published articles in professional journals and publications focusing on ethics. In 2005, she obtained a Master’s degree in Coordination Functions in Nursing, Midwifery and Paediatrics from the Università degli Studi di Firenze. From 2006 to 2016, she was the designated trainer for UNIFI professional Master’s programmes; from 2014 to 2016, she coordinated catalogue courses in ethics; and from 2016 to 2020, she worked on continuing education courses for the SOC Formazione of ASL Toscana Centro. In 2009, she obtained a Master’s degree in Nursing and Midwifery Sciences from the Università degli Studi di Firenze. She is a founding member of the cultural promotion association “Spazio Etico” and has served on its board since 2013. From 2005 to 2016, she was a member of the Local Ethics Committee of ASL 11 Empoli and, from 2016, of ASL Toscana Centro. Since 2020, she has worked in the SOS Etica e Cura of ASL Toscana Centro, where she provides bioethics training and information for employees and citizens and handles everyday bioethical issues; she was given a professional appointment for these activities in 2022. Since 2020, she has been a member of the Comitato per l’Etica Clinica of ASL Toscana Centro and of the Regione Toscana’s Nucleo di supporto alle attività regionali di bioetica e sperimentazione clinica.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

Date and Place of Birth: 28/08/1969 Alia (PA)

After completing secondary school, he felt the Lord’s call to serve Him in His Vineyard and therefore entered the Seminario Vescovile di Cefalù. After completing his studies in Theology, he was ordained a priest on 3 August 1996 through the consecratory prayer and the laying on of hands by the Bishop of Cefalù, Monsignor Rosario Mazzola. From 1996 to 1999, he was sent to Valledolmo as parochial vicar and to Sclafani Bagni as acting parish priest. From 1999 to 2012, he served as parish priest in the parishes of Bompietro and Locati, as well as for a period in Ferrarello. In 2012, he was sent to Castellana Sicula as parish priest, remaining there until December 2017. From December 2017 to 29 July 2018, he served as Delegato ad Omnia (Vicar General) of the Diocese of Cefalù. On 1 August 2018, he became parochial administrator of our community, and on 29 June 2019 he became its parish priest, with all the rights and duties attached to that office. He has also held several positions, including Delegate for Health Pastoral Care, Social Pastoral Care and Labour Issues, and Director of Caritas Diocesana from 2015 to 2020. He currently serves as Regional Corrector of the Misericordie, Corrector of the Misericordie of the Diocese of Cefalù, Spiritual Assistant to Catholic Doctors and Diocesan Assistant of UNITALSI.

One of the leading participants in the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle opere di misericordia held in Kisangani was Father Vittorio Faronnato, an Italian Comboni missionary who has lived in Congo for 50 years and is currently parish priest of the Parrocchia del Sacro Cuore di Yanonge, a town in the Isangi territory of Tshopo Province, on the banks of the Congo River, approximately sixty-two kilometres downstream from Kisangani.

During the Forum, Father Vittorio presented a catechesis inspired by gratuitousness as the driving force behind the Works of Mercy, in which he spoke of a society that must look to Christ in order to make mercy its way of life. In his 50 years as a missionary, he has developed, created and inspired many practical initiatives and continues to do so with the young people of Yanonge.

After the Forum, Father Vittorio brought the spirit of the riEvoluzione to his parish, where he organised training on the works of mercy for 50 catechists and pastoral workers. As he wrote: «Our Parrocchia Sacré Cœur, as its name already suggests, pays particular attention to mercy, which is becoming active».

Editor-in-chief of Laborcare Journal (an online journal dealing with the socio-anthropological, ethical and intercultural aspects of care), ISSN 2281-5988. President of the “Spazio Etico” Association (a social promotion association). In 2007, while serving as an adjunct lecturer in Demoethnoanthropological Disciplines on the Healthcare Professions degree programmes at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Università degli Studi di Firenze, he created the “LAB.OR” Project together with Mariella Orsi, through collaboration among the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and Education Sciences of the Florentine university, Fondazione Italiana di Leniterapia FILE, the women’s intercultural association Nosotras and Gruppo Etico Careggi per la Leniterapia Gr.E.Ca.Le: “an Orientation Laboratory for improving the intercultural approach to care work and end-of-life care. Laborcare aims to be an active and attentive observatory of the cultural, ethnological, social, psychological and healthcare issues involving individuals and their families at an intimate and delicate moment such as the ‘end of life’.” Over the years, the Laborcare website has incorporated contributions from many voices and has been visited not only by healthcare and volunteer professionals and people interested in end-of-life issues, but above all by students who have identified the website as a “place” where they can find useful material for their studies and research, including for writing their degree theses. Between 2011 and 2012, together with Mariella Orsi, he founded “Laborcare Journal” (ISSN 2281-5988), an online journal dealing with the socio-anthropological, ethical and intercultural aspects of care. In March, together with Marta Bernardeschi and other healthcare professionals, he founded the Cultural and Social Promotion Association called “Spazio Etico”, an open space for discussion among healthcare professionals inspired by the French Espace Éthique model promoted by Prof. Hirsch, now present in many French healthcare settings. He currently serves as its president. The purpose of Spazio Etico is to encourage the circulation of ideas and professional culture among those working in personal care. Spazio Etico can be defined as a “place” where all healthcare professionals can discuss issues relating to everyday professional life, giving everyone the opportunity to contribute their own “perspective” for the benefit of care. “Spazio Etico” can be defined as a “meeting place for experiences”. Giving a voice back to the lived experiences of the professionals taking part is an action that runs counter to the pace imposed by organisational structures. Allowing time for reflection, for sharing disorientation and for the joy of recounting acts of care that continue to permeate healthcare work means opening spaces of well-being that cannot be measured through operational performance indicators, but can be inferred from the extensive participation of professionals who continue to attend this self-convening and self-promoting space, which has existed for several years. Between 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic, he promoted a diary project called “Graffiti” and “Graffiti 1.2”: a collection of feelings and personal reflections by healthcare and social care professionals and members of civil society living in different regions and working in different professional settings. Its ultimate purpose was to preserve a record of the experiences that characterised such a difficult everyday life. The Graffiti experience was first published in issue 36 of Laborcare Journal and was subsequently deposited with the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale (A.D.N.) in Pieve Santo Stefano (AR).

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention. The spazio + spadoni online Magazine features a column devoted to Spazio Etico.

A journalist, essayist and television author specialising in Church issues. Editorial consultant for the weekly Credere and the monthly Jesus (Gruppo San Paolo). Author of the book “Famiglie missionarie a Km0” (IPL 2019). From 2001 to 2013, he edited the monthly “Mondo e Missione”. He contributes opinion pieces to Avvenire. He devised several themed exhibitions and the 2017 Festival della Missione. At the 2022 Festival della Missione, he explored issues relating to witness and martyrdom. He teaches Theory and Techniques of Journalism at the Università Cattolica di Brescia.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

A professional clown doctor trained at the Scuola Europea di Alta Formazione per clown dottori e gelotologi “Norman Cousins” in Orvieto, which uses the COMICITÀ È SALUTE method. A social theatre practitioner trained at the Scuola di Alta Formazione “I Vulcanici” in Acireale, he facilitates play-based educational activities and works as a trainer. Co-founder and president of the association Ci Ridiamo Sù, ODV. Co-founder and member of the Association “I clown dottori di Ci Ridiamo Su aps”. Since 2007, he has worked as a clown doctor in healthcare settings and has developed projects and activities in social and community settings. He has taken part in missions responding to natural disasters in Italy.

Speaker at the 2023 “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

Mayor of Noto (SR). He promoted the 2023 “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention in Noto.

Date and Place of Birth: 06/06/1948 Vinci (FI)

He was ordained a priest on 14 April 1973 in Pisa. Appointed to the episcopal see of Pescia on 25 November 2015, he was ordained a bishop on 3 January 2016 in Pisa. He has served as director of the Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose «Beato Niccolò Stenone» (1987–98), dean of the Studio Teologico Interdiocesano «Mons. Enrico Bartoletti» (1993–99), coordinator of the chaplaincy at Pisa prison, director of the Biblioteca Cateriniana and rector of the Seminario arcivescovile «S. Caterina» (1999–2015), director of the Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose «Beato Niccolò Stenone» (2010–15), spiritual director of the Seminario arcivescovile «S. Caterina» and episcopal vicar for the pastoral care of culture (2015–16), moderator of the Istituto superiore di Scienze religiose della Toscana «S. Caterina da Siena» (since 2018), and Caritas Delegate for the Conferenza Episcopale Toscana.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Date and Place of Birth: 18/06/1978, Parma

She completed training in Rome on the riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia in July 2024. She was the tutor of Sister Petronie, who was welcomed into her community in Palanzano.

Parish priest of Villalpando, Zamora.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy and Bioethics at the Department of Humanities and Philosophy of the Università degli Studi di Firenze. He holds a PhD in Bioethics from the Università degli Studi di Bologna. His work focuses on theoretical and applied ethics and, within this field, he has been mainly interested in ethical issues relating to the beginning and end of life, genetics and neuroscience. In recent years, he has devoted part of his research to examining the limits and potential of using behavioural economics to guide citizens’ behaviour (so-called nudging). From 2014 to 2021, he was a member of the Comitato etico per la Sperimentazione Clinica dell’Area Vasta Centro della Toscana, and since 2020 he has coordinated the Comitato per l’Etica Clinica of Usl Toscana Centro. Since 2022, he has been a member of the Università di Firenze’s Comitato Etico di Ateneo per la ricerca sugli animali. He serves on the scientific and editorial boards of various book series and academic journals, and since 2022 he has directed the series “Tecnica e vita. Collana di filosofia pratica” for the publisher Clinamen. His publications include: Decidere per chi non può: approcci filosofici all’eutanasia volontaria (Firenze University Press, 2005); Reciprocamente responsabili. La responsabilità morale tra naturalismo e normativismo (Edizioni ETS, 2018); with Silvia Vida, Libertà vigilata. Una critica del paternalismo libertario (If Press, 2018); with Maurizio Balistreri, Giovanni Capranico and Silvia Zullo, Biotecnologie e modificazioni genetiche. Scienza, etica, diritto (Il Mulino, 2020); and La pillola per diventare buoni. Etica e potenziamento morale (Fandango editore, 2022).

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

She graduated in Modern Literature from the Università degli Studi di Milano in 1990 and later obtained a PhD in Medieval History there in 1996. She is currently a member of the national executive board of the Società Italiana degli Storici Medievisti. Her interests have focused primarily on the history of society, religious life and the economy in the Middle Ages, with particular reference to northern Italy. Her research has concentrated especially on the history of confraternities, guilds, hospitals and prisons.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Date and Place of Birth: 1968 Firenze

Born in Florence in 1968, he lived in Prato from birth and, as he himself recounts, converted on Christmas Eve 1992 in the church of the Benedictine nuns of Rosano, a few kilometres from Florence. A few days later, he went up to San Miniato al Monte and began his novitiate among the Olivetan Benedictines, which led first to solemn vows and then to priestly ordination. In 2009, he became prior, a kind of “dress rehearsal” before becoming abbot on 13 December 2015. Under his leadership, the monastic community began a process of renewal, opening itself to the city and welcoming many people seeking a listening ear, meaning, consolation and faith. Father Bernardo Gianni was chosen by Pope Francis to lead the Lenten spiritual exercises in 2019.

Governor of the Confraternita di Misericordia di Castelnuovo and Head of the A.I.B., Civil Protection, Heritage and Safety Unit of the Unione Comuni della Garfagnana.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention. He involved his Misericordia in the HIC SUM project by welcoming Sister Justina for six months.

She served as a councillor for the Comune di Lucca, with responsibility for Social Policies, Measures Addressing Old and New Forms of Poverty, and Housing Policies. She worked at ASP Città di Bologna. She is currently engaged at the Università degli Studi di Firenze and the Comune di Altopascio.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

A filmmaker, documentary maker and photographer from Lucca, he is a member of the Associazione Documentaristi Italiani (Doc.It.). His father Ottavio, a professional photographer, was his first and most important teacher, while his mother Concetta supported him unconditionally despite the financial constraints of the time. While still a minor, he worked as an assistant projectionist at a cinema in the city, which allowed him to watch hundreds of films. At the age of 18, he made his first short film, which won the “Fotogramma d’Argento” at the Festival Nazionale di Torino (now the Torino Film Festival). Between 1964 and 1966, he attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, taking courses in photography, directing and editing. For several years, he taught photography and filmmaking techniques at the Scuola Media Sperimentale Leonardo da Vinci in Lucca. In his work, he has experienced and practised the entire technical evolution of the moving image: from film to magnetic video recording and digital technology. Since 1982, his attention has focused on ethnographic documentaries, with particular regard for emergencies in the Global South, especially Africa and Latin America. He has made documentaries and photographic reports in Sudan, Brazil, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Tunisia, the Dominican Republic, Rwanda, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Togo, Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Mozambique, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and South Africa. His clients include national and international television networks, as well as associations, non-profit organisations, NGOs and foundations operating internationally. Following a brief collaboration from 1990 to 1994, he renewed agreements with RAI in 2013, which acquired the rights to several of his more recent documentaries. To date, he has made approximately 80 works, including “short films” and “documentaries”. In 2008, approximately 15,000 colour photographs of peoples, customs and traditions, taken during his many journeys, formed a collection at the Archivio Fotografico Lucchese, which makes them available online.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

Spiritual Assistant of Movimento Apostolico Ciechi.

Speaker at the 2023 “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

Archbishop of the Diocese of Lucca. In May 2021, he was elected President of the Commissione Episcopale per la famiglia, i giovani e la vita, thereby leaving his service as a member of the Commissione episcopale per l’educazione, la scuola e l’università and as youth delegate for the Conferenza Episcopale Toscana. He was born in Perugia, in the Archdiocese of Perugia–Città della Pieve, on 1 January 1964. After two years at university, he entered the seminary in Assisi, where he spent six years and attended the Istituto Teologico di Assisi, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Theology. He was ordained a deacon on 28 October 1990 and a priest on 29 September 1991. During his youth and seminary years, he was particularly involved in pastoral work with younger generations; after ordination, he continued this commitment by attending the Università Pontificia Salesiana and specialising in catechetics and youth ministry. From 1991 to 1995, he lived and worked in the parish of San Sisto. From 1995 to 2001, Bishops Antonelli and Chiaretti asked him to work full-time with young people as head of the diocesan office, assistant to several youth associations (AC and FUCI), coordinator for conscientious objectors and assistant to the Caritas diocesana “S. Giuseppe Cafasso” community for prisoners. In September 2001, he was appointed head of the CEI’s Servizio Nazionale per la Pastorale Giovanile, a position he held for six years, during which the World Youth Days in Toronto and Cologne took place, as well as the meeting of young Italians with Benedict XVI in Loreto in September 2007 (Agorà dei giovani italiani). From December 2007 to October 2011, he was parish priest of the Unità Pastorale di Ponte San Giovanni; from June 2010, he served as vicar general of the Diocese of Perugia–Città della Pieve. On 10 August 2014, he was ordained a bishop as auxiliary to Cardinal Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti, with the titular see of Termini Imerese. On 19 January 2019, he was appointed Archbishop of Lucca, where he began his ministry on 12 May of the same year.

A Law graduate from the Università di Pisa, he is a researcher at the Istituto di Diritto, Politica e Sviluppo. He earned a PhD in People and Legal Protections and subsequently held a postdoctoral fellowship and a research fellowship in Constitutional Law at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. He is responsible for the activities of the Centro di ricerca Maria Eletta Martini, established by the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca and Fondazione Coesione Sociale Onlus. The centre conducts research on the third sector and volunteering. A lecturer in Third Sector Law at the Università di Pisa, he provides consultancy services to the Forum del Terzo settore, CSVnet and ONC. He works regularly with the scientific committee of CESVOT and is a member of the scientific committee of the Laboratorio ARCO at the Università di Firenze. He is currently a member of the working group established at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, following a resolution of the Consiglio nazionale del Terzo settore, on the regulation of relations between public administrations and the third sector. Together with Emanuele Rossi and Pierluigi Consorti, he is the author of the handbook “Diritto del Terzo settore”.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

Rector of the Cathedral of Lucca.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Governor of the Misericordia di Modica.

Speaker at the 2023 “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

An expert in third sector communications, trainer and social impact evaluator. Within the Church, she is involved in the Famiglie Missionarie a km0 group, particularly in creating and fostering contacts and a network with other innovative mission experiences in Italy.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

He holds a doctorate in Industrial Economics, Business Organisation and Management from the Università di Firenze in Italy, as well as a doctorate in Agricultural Economics and Policy and Rural Development from the Università di Siena in Italy. He has been Associate Professor at the Institut supérieur du Commerce de Kinshasa-Gombe (ISC) since 2005 and Vice-Rector responsible for teaching in the Commercial and Financial Sciences Section. He is part of the Congolese community in Italy and is a professor at several universities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. From 2007 to 2008, he was adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs; from 2008 to 2012, Minister of Decentralisation; and from 2014 to 2016, Minister of Technical and Vocational Education. He has served as a consultant to the UNDP and the World Bank on decentralisation, development and planning, as President of ONGD CEPPROSOCO and as President of the intellectuals’ committee of the “S. Joseph” parish.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Lecturer and researcher at the Université d’Abomey-Calavi (Faculty of Humanities, Department of Philosophy).

Lecturer at CAMES universities, author and editor of four books and numerous articles. He teaches at two major seminaries in Benin and at the Institut Jean-Paul II.

Speaker at the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia, held in Cotonou, Benin, on 25–26 November 2023.

Governor of the Misericordia di Camaiore e Lido, treasurer of the Confederazione Misericordie d’Italia, deputy director of Caritas diocesana di Lucca for the Viareggio and Versilia area, official of the Comune di Lucca and head of social housing and marginalisation.

She began her career as an actress by studying acting at the Piccolo Teatro Sperimentale della Versilia, directed by Raffaella Panichi. She made her theatrical debut at a very young age as the lead in W. Shakespeare’s “La dodicesima Notte”, playing the dual role of Viola/Cesario alongside Renato De Carmine as Malvolio, directed by Jerome Savary. At the end of the tour, she moved to Rome, where she began numerous collaborations with theatre directors on the Roman scene. In cinema, she worked with several directors, including Enrico Coletti, Marco Bellocchio, Roberto Benigni and Stefano Reali. At the same time, she appeared in numerous successful television dramas, working on set with Gigi Proietti, Massimo Dapporto and Giancarlo Giannini. She joined the regular cast of the television series “Non lasciamoci più 1 e 2”, with Fabrizio Frizzi and Debora Caprioglio, directed by V. Sindoni. She has also appeared in various television commercials and RAI programmes. In recent years, she has contributed to the production and artistic creation of several short films directed by Federico Caramadre Ronconi and Umberto Innocenzi, in which she also played leading roles, participating in major national and international film festivals. With Umberto Innocenzi’s short film “Attimi di fuga”, she was a finalist at the David di Donatello awards. She also ventured into experimental theatre with Patrizia Hartman, Natalia Antonioli and Mauro Barabani. In recent years, she has directed several of her own theatrical works: “Che bello stare nella luce!”, “Babar e altre storie”, “Incanto” and “Sharazade”. For the Comune di Massarosa, she has organised numerous events, including the Premio Letterario Massarosa. She is currently involved in the Dante recital “Frammenti di Paradiso”, directed by Mauro Barabani; the production “L’eccezione e la regola” by B. Brecht, directed by Pietro Cennamo; and the recital “Canzoni” by B. Brecht and K. Weill, directed by Alberto Paloscia. She began her artistic collaboration with Giampiero Pierini with the recital “Fremito”, based on the poetry collection by Daniele Bertoni.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention. She also accompanied Sister Agnes’s HIC SUM training programme at the Misericordia di Stiava.

Léontine is a lecturer at the Université de Kisangani (UNIKIS), in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences.

She is the author of several publications in the fields of education and psychology, including «Appréciation du climat scolaire par les enseigneants du secondaire de la commune MANGOBO, à Kisangani». Léontine conducts research in human developmental psychology, women’s psychology, school adjustment and the inclusion of deaf-mute people.

A Catholic Christian and mother, Léontine has always been involved in civic and religious associations and social life. She is currently president of the diocesan movement “Femmes Chrétiennes Catholiques” (FCCATH) in the Archdiocese of Kisangani.

During the Forum held in Kisangani in September 2024, Léontine presented the theme “Christian women as protagonists in education in human and Christian values”.

He is an anthropologist. Founder and former Director of the Instituto Global para el Diálogo y la Cultura del Encuentro (Institute for Global Dialogue and the Culture of Encounter), a multidisciplinary and interinstitutional programme inspired by the message of Pope Francis and focused on education, work and the environment. He is Associate Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He is President of the Instituto Universitario del Agua y el Saneamiento (IUAS). The university institute represents an innovative approach to the education, training and development of professionals in the water and sanitation sector and has its origins in the Human Right to Water movement. He also directs the Fundación de los Trabajadores Sanitaristas para la Formación y el Desarrollo (FUTRASAFODE), or Foundation of Sanitation Workers for Training and Development, and is an Adviser to the Presidential Committee of the Conferencia Eclesial de la Amazonía (CEAMA). In public administration, he served as Deputy Minister of Education of the City of Buenos Aires, Director of Private Education at the city’s Ministry of Education and Secretary of the Universidad de Buenos Aires. In the private sector, he was Secretary of the Association of Education Workers of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, where he promoted the creation of education and training institutions aimed at strengthening workers’ continuing development, including the Education Department of the Federation of Gas Industry Workers. He has been invited to speak at various international events as an expert on education, labour and the right to water, among other subjects, emphasising the need to develop an epistemological dialogue to build better learning and practices of hope. His publications include the book “Una Ecología Integral para el Siglo XXI” (IDGCE, 2019), “Liderazgo y gestión en tiempos de incertidumbre. Una perspectiva sobre la supervisión escolar” (Revista Ased, 2010), “El Derecho Humano al agua. Aportes y perspectivas interdisciplinarias sobre la centraldad de las políticas públicas en la gestión del agua y el saneamiento” (IDGCE, 2007), “Nosotros, los otros, tres accesos sobre el poder, la cultura y la identidad en el mundo urbano” (2001) and “Estado, Cultura e identidad, eje histórico monumental de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires” (1996).

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

Congregation: Sainte Famille di Kisangani

Community (Municipality-Province-Country): Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo

She is involved in training novices and promoting awareness of Blessed Anuarite, the first Blessed martyr of the Congo.

She participated as a speaker at the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia held in Kisangani. On that occasion, she recalled the figure of the Blessed and how she lived the works of mercy through caring for elderly people, service and concrete commitment.

She is currently Director of the Nursing and Care Area at the RSA Convento di S. Francesco of the Confraternita di Misericordia di Borgo a Mozzano. An expert in caring for elderly people and passionate about health and social care, she believes in the potential of integrated care systems and the results produced by such virtuous approaches. After a brief period working in a hospital medical department, she became an employee of the Confraternita di Misericordia di Borgo a Mozzano in March 1991, initially coordinating and later directing the RSA Convento di S. Francesco. After qualifying as a nurse, in 2013 she obtained a first-level Master’s degree in “Management for coordination functions in nursing, midwifery and paediatric sciences” and, in 2015, a “First-level Master’s degree in family and community nursing”, both from the Università degli Studi di Pisa. She is currently attending the Master’s degree programme in Nursing Sciences at the Università degli Studi di Firenze. She works in training, collaborating with the main training organisations in the Province of Lucca and Tuscany and teaching as a subject-matter expert in healthcare, technical care and social services. She oversees all health, social care and prevention matters concerning the health and social services provided by the Confraternita di Misericordia di Borgo a Mozzano and is the Misericordia’s point of reference for all health, hygiene and safety issues relating to the Covid-19 pandemic. Among the passions that characterise her professional work is participating in and organising meetings aimed at professional development and the continuous improvement of teams working within care organisations and facilities, based on the understanding that resilience is a quality that can belong both to individuals and to organisations.

She follows Sister Ansila’s HIC SUM project, whose Institute has a community in Borgo a Mozzano. Although Sister Ansila is now in Timor-Leste to develop a new phase of the project, Lorena supports her from Italy through frequent contact.

Editor of the journal Impresa Sociale. Co-director of the Biennale della Prossimità.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Deputy Director of the Ufficio Diocesano di Lucca per l’Arte Sacra, i Beni Culturali Ecclesiastici e l’Edilizia di Culto.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Mashal Arman was born in Kabul. She is the daughter of one of Afghanistan’s most famous singers, Ustad Hossein Arman, who introduced her to Persian music. Exiled to Switzerland with her family, she studied music in Switzerland and the United States. Her artistic work alternates between classical singing, musical theatre and preserving the Afghan folk music entrusted to her family. She has sung in Afghanistan, France, Germany, the United States, Algeria, Italy and Switzerland and, with the group “Mashal Arman & the afghan project”, undertakes a work of “musical archaeology” to rediscover the wonderful lost melodies of a once-flourishing body of music. Her ensemble explores Persian music by drawing on different musical cultures: a Persian heritage, both popular and sacred, bearing witness to a long past and immersed in universal poetry. Historical upheavals and wars have continued to scatter musicians and endanger the transmission of this priceless artistic heritage, especially now that music is prohibited in Afghanistan.

She was a speaker at the 2022 spazio + spadoni Convention “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” and, together with Barbara Schiavulli, gave a presentation entitled “The courage to tell stories through words and music. A friendship born in Kabul”.

Date and Place of Birth: 23/03/1949 San Marzano di San Giuseppe (TA)

He was born on 23 March 1949 in San Marzano di San Giuseppe (Taranto), a historic Albanian community in Apulia. He was ordained a priest of the Order of Friars Minor in the Province of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lecce on 21 September 1974 by the Bishop of Lecce, Francesco Minerva. On 7 December 1996, Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Rrëshen and ordained him a bishop on 6 January of the following year in St Peter’s Basilica. On 28 March 1998, he was appointed Archbishop of Shkodër and, on 25 January 2005, following the reorganisation of Albania’s ecclesiastical jurisdictions, he became Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Shkodër-Pult, created through the union of the Archdiocese of Shkodër and the Diocese of Pult.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

She obtained a degree in Philosophy in 2017, with a thesis on the origins and themes of the novel “Malombra” as a text that anticipated the principal literary concerns of the early twentieth century. She is currently completing a degree at the Faculty of Logic, Philosophy and History of Science. Her research examines the possibilities that ontological dualism still opens up for analysing psychic life, especially emotional life, conceived as a pathway from the aesthetic stage to the moral and ethical stage, with particular reference to the Christian theological perspective.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Date and Place of Birth: 25/09/1961 Sansepolcro (AR)

Education

Istituto Forestale per la selvicoltura Camiati – forestry expert.

Work experience

Former public official employed by the Ministry of the Interior and Head of Operational Offices.

Profile

Misericordia volunteer; advanced-level rescuer; healthcare trainer under former Regional Law 83/19; BLSD trainer; civil protection trainer; MTM major emergencies trainer; IRC community trainer for qualification in the use of an AED; IRC Council trainer for qualification in the use of an AED; volunteer at the Ufficio Esecuzione Penale Esterna in Arezzo.

Experiences with spazio + spadoni

Tutor to Sister Lea, who came to Italy for six months through the HIC SUM project.

UNITALSI.

Speaker at the 2023 “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

As the Archbishop’s representative at the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia in Kisangani, Abbé Victor played a central role in preparing the event, as he is responsible for pastoral care in the Diocese of Kisangani.

After holding various responsibilities in the diocese, including Chancellor, parish priest, seminary trainer and director of Radio Maria, … Abbé Victor is now Director of the Ufficio Diocesano della Pastorale e Catechesi.

He edits the French-language commentary on the Gospel of the day, «Dieu nous parle aujourd’hui», on the spazio + spadoni website. After the Forum, Abbé Victor committed himself to spreading the works of mercy in outlying parishes by incorporating this activity into diocesan pastoral work and the activities of his Office.

At the Forum, Abbé Victor presented the theme: “From the story of the Good Samaritan to the revolution of the Works of Mercy in the socio-economic context of Tshopo Province”.

Congregation: Suore Comboniane del Cuore di Gesù

Community (Municipality-Province-Country): Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Provincial Superior of the Province of Congo. Sister Nicole was a speaker at the Forum on the riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia held in Kisangani. On that occasion, she presented the Comboni charism and her missionary experience as a work of mercy. The Comboni sisters in Kisangani welcome poor, abandoned and homeless people and support children who have difficulty studying, as well as groups of people living with AIDS.

Speaker at the 2023 “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

Carlo Miglietta is a physician specialising in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Gerontology. He first worked as a hospital doctor at Ospedale Martini in Turin and later as a family doctor for ASL 01 in Turin. In 1970, together with several friends, he founded GMG “Gruppo Missionario Giovanile”, while in 2000 he founded CO.RO ONLUS “Comitato Roraima di solidarietà con i popoli indigeni del Brasile”, of which he is currently Secretary. In 1971, he began his journey as a biblical scholar with a Bible course on the Gospel of Matthew. His passion for Scripture and exegetical methodology was initially fostered through his participation in the Comunità Ecumenica di Bose and was later deepened at the Facoltà Teologica di Torino and through daily personal study. Every year, in the Diocese of Turin and other Italian dioceses, he gives numerous Bible courses, conferences and retreats, always on scriptural subjects. In them, he seeks to provide interpretative keys to the chosen biblical topic, with historical, literary, exegetical and spiritual references, with the sole aim of leading participants to a personal encounter with the Sacred Text, engaging with it and, above all, praying the Word. He writes books on biblical topics and contributes Bible columns to print and online periodicals. He edits the Sunday Gospel meditations for the Misericordie on spaziospadoni.org under the title “Buona misericordia a tutti!”.

Born in Burundi, he is a consecrated member of the Movimento dei Focolari. He is currently on mission in Burkina Faso.

He organised the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, on 1 and 2 December 2023.

Date and Place of Birth: 12/11/1940 Serrastretta (CZ)

He made his solemn profession on 15 July 1962 and was ordained a priest on 18 December 1965. During the Order’s General Chapter in 1986, he was elected Rector General, a position in which he was confirmed by the following two Chapters until 2004. During these years, he travelled extensively, not only to communities in Italy but especially abroad, from India to Chile and Nigeria. In 2004, he stepped down from leading the Order to devote himself to pastoral care in Lariano, a small town in the Castelli Romani. In July 2016, the 111th OMD Chapter, held at the Marian shrine of Fosciandora in the birthplace of the Holy Founder, once again called the Most Reverend Father Vincenzo to serve in the Curia as successor to St John Leonardi.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

He is part of the volunteer group in Kisangani created by Sister Annie. Emile is a layman involved in parish activities and has a passion for music. A trainer for various choirs in the diocese and composer of several liturgical songs, he composed the anthem for the Forum on the Works of Mercy.

Drawing on his experience, Emile played an important role in the Forum by managing its secretariat, moderating the sessions and helping to draft the final document.

With his background in philosophy, Emile works as Secretary at the Edith Stein diocesan seminary in Kisangani, where he is also a trainer. For him, the Forum provided an impetus to grow as a volunteer in the works of mercy and to spread them.

He was a trade unionist with Filca-Cisl Fiorentina e Toscana from 1974 to 1984, when he entered the seminary. He was ordained a priest by Cardinal Silvano Piovanelli in 1990. Provost of Santa Maria a Scandicci. Since 1993, he has been director of the Ufficio dei Problemi Sociali e del Lavoro of the Archdiocese of Florence. Formerly a parish priest in the outlying district of San Donnino a Campi (1991–2016), he gained extensive experience in immigration, particularly with Chinese citizens, becoming a point of reference for Tuscany. The journalist Luigi Ceccherini wrote about this experience in: “La <<rivoluzione>> di don Momigli. Come un ex sindacalista salvò un paese da Chinatown. La via fiorentina all’inte(g)razione” (Sarnus 2016). He is a registered journalist. He has published “La città plurale. Migrazioni, interazione, unità civica” (Tau editrice, 2017) and “La Chiesa nella città. Segno & Via per il bene comune” (Edizioni Ares, 2019).

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Pier Angelo Mori is Professor of Political Economy at the Università degli Studi di Firenze and scientific coordinator of the university’s Unità Interdipartimentale di Ricerca su Cooperazione e Nonprofit (CONOR). His work focuses on third sector economics, particularly cooperative and non-profit organisations. At Euricse, he has coordinated research mainly on cooperatives and citizen- and community-owned enterprises.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

He is a Syriac Catholic monk and priest from Aleppo and prior of the Mar Elian monastery in Syria’s Homs Governorate. On 21 May 2015, he was abducted from the monastery by ISIS together with a young seminarian and held captive for four months and twenty days in the Raqqa area. On 11 October of the same year, he managed to escape with the help of a Muslim friend. He recounted his kidnapping in the autobiography “Un monaco in ostaggio. La lotta per la pace di un prigioniero dei jihadisti”.

In 2023, Father Jacques Mourad was ordained Archbishop of Homs, Hama and Nebek in Syria.

He was a speaker at the “Fare spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention and, together with spazio + spadoni, developed a HIC SUM project in Syria.

Alessandro Mrakic graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Università di Firenze and then completed his education at the Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain. After completing his studies, he moved abroad, where he had the opportunity to work in the humanitarian sector. In 2003, he spent time in Iraq as a civil infrastructure expert with the “Coalition Provisional Authority”, before moving to Pakistan in 2007 as a UNESCO officer. In 2008, he left with his family for Israel and Palestine, where he began working for the United Nations Development Programme. In 2014, he moved to Amman, Jordan, as a local governance expert, coordinating various projects in Arab countries. He was subsequently transferred to the United Nations office in Brussels. He currently serves as an officer of the United Nations Development Programme.

Father Felex Muhumuza is a diocesan priest of the Archdiocese of Mbarara, Uganda. He earned a degree in Philosophy from the Pontificia Università Urbaniana in Rome and a diploma in Religious and Theological Studies. He also earned a degree in Theology from the Pontificia Università Urbaniana in Rome. He works at Kyoaga parish.

Speaker at the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia promoted and supported by spazio + spadoni in Mbarara, Uganda.

Date and Place of Birth: 30/09/1961 Lucca

Born in Lucca in 1961, where he lives and works. Always active in volunteering, he currently serves as Director of the Arciconfraternita di Misericordia di Lucca and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Centro Nazionale del Volontariato, after holding various positions in different organisations and serving two terms as President of the Centro Servizi per il volontariato. Alongside his passion for the history of Lucca and medieval and religious history, he is also passionate about photography and collecting. He has organised several exhibitions on sacred iconography, which he collects.

Sergio is one of the Seniors, namely those who define the content and methods used to spread the message of OPERA M.

She serves as a linker for spazio + spadoni in Kenya.

She organised the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia in Nairobi, Kenya, on 31 August and 1 September 2024.

He teaches theological epistemology, Trinitarian theology and the theology of interreligious dialogue at the Facoltà Teologica di Sicilia in Palermo. He contributes to several theology journals and is the author of numerous publications. He has been director of the Centro Studi Cammarata in San Cataldo since 2004. He first studied at the Istituto Teologico-Pastorale “Guttadauro” in Caltanissetta and then at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana in Rome.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Father Léonard Ndjadi Ndjate, a Comboni missionary, was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by Pope Francis on 13 May 2023. He is the first Congolese Comboni bishop. On 13 August 2023, Father Léonard was ordained a bishop in his hometown of Kisangani.

The Archdiocese of Kisangani hosted the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia in 2024.

A specialist social worker, she has worked at the Comune di San Casciano in Val di Pesa since December 2022, following extensive experience at the Comune di Barberino Tavarnelle and a one-year project at the Tribunale per i Minorenni di Firenze as a “liaison officer”. She previously gained significant experience as an educator and project designer in the social and educational field.

After first graduating in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures (German Literature) and then completing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Social Work, she has worked as a trainer with several training organisations since 1998. In 2016–17, she taught on the supervision programme for placement supervisors organised by the Ordine degli Assistenti Sociali della Toscana.

Since 2018, she has been a member of SOCISS (Società Italiana di Servizio Sociale). She is also a member of the executive board of So.S.S.P. (Società Scientifica di Scrittura Professionale).

From 2002 to 2018, she worked with the Social Work degree programme at the Università degli Studi di Firenze, organising and tutoring students’ placement projects. From November 2014 to September 2018, she was the academic placement tutor and representative of the degree programme on CISST (Comitato Interistituzionale del Servizio Sociale della Toscana).

From 2005 to 2016, she was an adjunct lecturer for the Writing Workshop and subsequently for the Professional Documentation and Placement Supervision Workshop on the Social Work degree programme at the Università degli Studi di Firenze.

Since the 2016–2017 academic year, she has been an adjunct lecturer for a module of the Principles and Methods of Social Work course on the Social Work degree programme at the Università degli Studi di Firenze.

Roman Catholic religious brother (32 years old)

Education

August 2019 to December 2021: Loyola University Chicago, Master’s degree in Pastoral Counselling

August 2007 to May 2010: Loyola University Chicago

Master’s degree in Education (specialisation in administration and supervision)

2005–2007: Loyola University Chicago, Bachelor’s degree in Economics

2000–2005: Headteacher of St Charles Lwanga Secondary School, Uganda.

1992 to 1995: Teacher Training Institute (KYAMBOGO)

Teacher Training Diploma (ITEK), Uganda

1981 to 1986: St Gerald’s High School, Kololo High School, Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB)

1974 to 1980: St Jerome Primary School, Primary Leaving Examination (PLE)

Speaker at the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia promoted and supported by spazio + spadoni in Mbarara, Uganda.

He is a Nigerian Catholic archbishop and diplomat and, since 15 March 2023, Secretary of the Section for First Evangelisation and the New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelisation. From 1977 to 1984, he attended Bigard Seminary in Ikot Ekpene. He was ordained a priest on 17 June 1984 and incardinated as a priest of the same diocese. In 1986, he was sent to Rome to continue his studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, obtaining a degree in Sacred Scripture; he subsequently moved to the Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt, Germany, where he studied Old Testament exegesis in particular. His university studies culminated in two doctorates: one in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontificia Università Urbaniana and one in Canon Law from the Pontificia Università “San Tommaso d’Aquino”. After completing his studies at the Pontificia Accademia Ecclesiastica in 1992, he entered the Holy See’s diplomatic service and later served at the United Nations Office and specialised agencies in Geneva. On 4 August 2004, Pope John Paul II conferred on him the honorary title of Prelate of Honour of His Holiness. In November 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to Nicaragua. In 2013, he founded the Fortune Aquaviva Foundation. In December 2021, Pope Francis appointed him, at the age of sixty-one, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Office and specialised agencies in Geneva and the World Trade Organization, as well as Representative of the Holy See to the International Organization for Migration. In March 2023, the Pope appointed him Secretary of the Section for First Evangelisation and the New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelisation.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention; he wrote the foreword to the spazio + spadoni OPERA M booklet.

Father Yannick is a lively young priest committed to culture and youth ministry. He belongs to the Famiglia Dehoniana del Sacro Cuore di Gesù (SCJ). He likes to describe himself as «a priest of hope», as he comes from the war-torn North Kivu region. This is what the young priest came to understand when he created the magazine «J’écris, je crie» with a group of other young people. Launched on 1 December 2022, this monthly publication has become a space for promoting a culture of peace and human rights.

Two years later, the magazine evolved and gave rise to Edizioni «J’écris, je crie», with the aim of promoting exceptionally talented young writers in a region where access to a publishing house remains difficult.

Today, he is Deputy Provincial Secretary of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of the Province of Congo and a trainer at the Monseigneur Wittebols seminary in Kisangani. Father Yannick is a priest committed to promoting culture and peace.

As a speaker at the Kisangani Forum, Father Yannick presented the theme “The Works of Mercy: a biblical and theological approach”.

A consecrated laywoman in the Movimento dei Focolari. She belongs to the community in Cotonou, Benin, and serves as a linker for spazio + spadoni.

She organised the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia in Cotonou, Benin, on 25 and 26 November 2024.

Louis Orio is a committed layman, entrepreneur and father. He works for Caritas diocesana di Kisangani and is a development officer.

As a speaker at the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia, he presented the theme: “Entrepreneurship as the secular arm of the riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia”.

Parish priest of the Comunità parrocchiale Santa Gemma and Corrector of the Misericordia Santa Gemma. Since 2020, Coordinator of the Tavolo Diocesano delle Scuole Cattoliche and member of the Equipe Diocesana Tutela dei Minori.

Ambassador for the HIC SUM project. He promoted the project within the Misericordia di Santa Gemma through the arrival of Sister Jacqueline and within the parish community by welcoming Sister Francine.

Umberto A. Palagi teaches Dogmatic Theology at the Scuola di formazione teologica of the Diocese of Lucca and formerly taught Catholic Religious Education in upper secondary schools. He contributes to the weekly “In Cammino – Toscana Oggi”. He is the author of several publications, including: “L’amore la sua vita il suo testamento. 80° del martirio di don Aldo Mei”, Tralerighe ed, Lucca 2024; “La Madonna del Sasso, un exemplum mariano nella vita religiosa lucchese”, Quaderni di fede e cultura, Lucca 2003; and “La Luminara di Santa Croce nel tempo”, Marco Puccinelli – Umberto Palagi, BdC editore, Lucca 2021.

Archbishop of Porto Velho (Rondônia) and President of CIMI (Consiglio Indigenista Missionario della Conferenza Episcopale Brasiliana).

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

President of Caritas Sicilia.

Speaker at the 2023 “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

National President of MAC, Movimento Apostolico Ciechi. Present in local Churches as a diocesan association, the Movement is called to participate and interact with local Church bodies and structures.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

Head of the Tuscany Region for the Comunità Italiana Foulard Bianchi.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Father Benu Efoevi Penoukou has been a priest since May 1970. Upon returning from Rome in September of the same year, he was appointed parish priest of Lomé Cathedral. He earned a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Legon in Ghana. He later became National Director of the Works and Director of CESAL (Centro di Educazione Spirituale per l’Apostolato dei Laici). For two decades, he was responsible for the chaplaincy of Caritas Togo, the coordination of French-speaking Caritas organisations and the secretariat of Caritas d’Afrique. During the same period, he oversaw the foundation of Paroisse Saint-Kisito in Tokoin-Doumassesse. He was a member of the Central Committee for the Jubilee of 2000. In 1997, the bishops of Africa elected him Secretary General of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).

From 2000 to 2002, in Lomé, he hosted a programme on Radio Maria: “Credere in Dio, credere nella Chiesa, programma per l’intelligenza della fede”. He then used a two-year sabbatical to enrol at Saint Paul University and the University of Ottawa in Canada. He returned to Togo in 2004 with a Master’s degree in Missiology. He is National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies of Togo (OPM-TOGO). He teaches Missiology and the Social Doctrine of the Church at the Seminario Maggiore San Giovanni Paolo II. He published “Ringuaina la spada”, the successful outcome of a series of broadcasts on violence, reconciliation, forgiveness and peace. His other publications include “La Chiesa e le sfide africane”; “La speranza cristiana di fronte alla morte”; “Dio ha tanto amato il mondo…”; and books on the management of social and charitable organisations. His latest publication is “Parla, Signore, il tuo Servo ascolta!”: commentaries on the biblical texts for Sundays and feast days. He is currently responsible for the Christian community of Vakpossito, on the outskirts of Lomé.

Professor of Comparative Private Law, holder of the chair in Muslim Law and the Law of Islamic Countries, and Dean of the Jean Monnet Faculty. Born in Rome, he obtained his Law degree from La Sapienza. Director of the second-level Master’s degree in Mediation, Trade and Investment in the Mediterranean, he gained extensive experience as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law in Santa Maria Capua Vetere. The author of numerous publications on the comparative law of Arab and Islamic countries, Piccinelli served on the Steering Committee of the Scuola Jean Monnet.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Maestro Vijay Pierallini graduated in violin from the Istituto Musicale L. Boccherini in Lucca and continued his advanced studies at the Accademia di Musica di Fiesole. He studied choral and orchestral conducting with maestros Fabrizio Dorsi and Piero Bellugi, classical singing with maestros Graziano Polidori and Dano Raffanti, and gospel singing with Cheryl Porter. As a classical musician, he has performed as a soloist and in every type of ensemble, working with artists including Aronovich, Michele Campanella, Pina Carmirelli, Ruggero Raimondi, Cecilia Gasdia, Luciano Pavarotti, Laura Antonacci, Gabriele Pierannunzi, Olga Arzilli, Cristiano Rossi, Franco Maggio, Ormezoscky, Marzio Conti, Olga Dimitrova, Olivia Stapp, William Martinucci, Leo Nucci, Carla Fracci, Rudolf Nureyev and Salvatore Accardo, among others… He founded the Trio Barocco Lucchese, with which he has performed concerts in Italy and the United States. He later began working as a choir director, ranging from early, liturgical, classical and modern music to gospel. He has conducted hundreds of liturgies and concerts in Italy and abroad, including in Austria (Vienna – Rathaus), France (Paris – UNESCO World Centre), Spain (Barcelona – Monastery of Montserrat) and the Czech Republic (third prize at the 2006 Praga Cantat International Competition), as well as at the 2010 Lucca Jazz Donna Festival and in the show “The Celebration” with a Madonna tribute band. In 2000, he conducted the Solemn Jubilee Mass in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, with a choir of more than 600 singers from the cathedral choirs of the Dioceses of Lucca, Vicenza, Ferrara, Treviso and Naples. In 2006, the Province of Lucca awarded him a plaque in recognition of special artistic merit. Pierallini is also artistic director of several festivals, including “Giovani concertisti A. Betti” in Bagni di Lucca, the “Giovane Talento Lucchese” Award, performances for the Comune di Capannori entitled “For India (2004)”, “For Bolivia (2005)” and “For Rwanda (2006)”, and the gospel singing festival “Halleluja – Lucca Gospel Festival”. In 2008, during the year of the Puccini celebrations “Che musica Maestro”, Pierallini conducted 20 opera concerts dedicated to Giacomo Puccini in Piazza Cittadella and Puccini-related locations in the Province of Lucca and Tuscany (Abetone – Uzzano). He was also Artistic Director of the staging of the opera “La Bohème di Celle dei Puccini” in Celle, the village from which the Puccini family originated. Since 2010, he has been involved in producing the musicals “Mamma Mia! The Show”, “Saturday Night Fever” and “Chicago”, as well as the 2019 revival of “Mamma Mia! The Show”. In 2019, together with Loreta Claudia Siderman (President), he founded the LYM Academy in Lucca, of which he is Director and a teacher of modern and choral singing, establishing collaborations with Sanremo Giovani, Una Voce per l’Europa, X-Factor, Casa Sanremo and Sony Italia. He recently founded the record label LYM Records, already accredited with RAI in Rome. Since 2019, he has taught Vocal Technique, Singing and Choir at the Accademia di Recitazione Toscana (ART) based in Lucca. In 2022, he was appointed Artistic Director of the Opera section of the Premio Luchino Visconti in Ischia (NA).

He participated with his choir and presented a performance during the Fare Spazio al Coraggio Convention.

After studying at the Istituto Musicale “L. Boccherini” in Lucca and graduating with top marks, he attended Severino Gazzelloni’s advanced courses at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. He later studied with W. Tripp, A. Marion, C. Clem and R. Guiot. He took part in various national and international competitions, placing among the top contestants, including at the Città di Stresa award. He was a member of the Orchestra Sinfonica del Teatro del Giglio di Lucca. He currently performs in Italy and abroad, both as a soloist and in various chamber ensembles. He has made television and radio recordings for several Italian and international organisations. He taught flute on experimental music programmes at the Scuola Media Statale D. Chelini in Lucca. From 1996 to 2011, he was a permanent music teacher at the Liceo Galileo Chini in Lido di Camaiore and currently holds the music education enhancement post at ISI Machiavelli in Lucca.

He performed during the Fare Spazio al Coraggio Convention.

An AIDO member since 1988, she made a conscious choice to volunteer actively in order to raise awareness of organ, tissue and cell donation, which saves the lives of people awaiting therapeutic transplants. In the 1990s, she was President of the Gruppo AIDO di Licata, later named after Giuseppe Cammalleri. She then served two further terms as Provincial President of Agrigento. In 2020, she became President of AIDO Regione Sicilia and joined the Conferenza dei Presidenti Regionali d’Italia. Throughout the region, she organises and promotes meetings with pupils and students of all ages and promotes the Regional “Nicholas Green” Competition, launched in 1995. She networks with other donation associations to raise awareness and spread a culture of donation as a prerequisite for therapeutic transplantation. In June 2021, together with amateur cyclist and testimonial Michail Speciale from Partinico, she created an awareness-raising route in Sicily entitled “Periplo della Sicilia”. In June 2022, she created an interregional project entitled “Dalla Sicilia con amore”, setting off by bicycle from Partinico and travelling through Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata, Campania and Lazio to reach the AIDO Nazionale headquarters in Rome, coinciding with the National Assembly on the 18th and 19th, which brought together all the Regional Presidents and National Councillors. Another cycling project is being developed for AIDO’s 50th anniversary.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

Governor of the Misericordia di Uzzano, which welcomed Sister Luminatha for the HIC SUM project.

Archbishop of Catania, he trained at the Seminario Vescovile di Andria from 1979 to 1984 and at the Pontificio Seminario Regionale Pugliese in Molfetta from 1984 to 1991.

He was ordained a priest by H.E.R. Mons. Raffaele Calabro on 7 September 1991 in the Chiesa Madre of Minervino Murge, his hometown.

He obtained a licentiate in Moral Theology from the Pontificia Università Gregoriana in Rome on 7 October 1993.

Parochial vicar of the SS. Sacramento parish in Andria from 1991 to 1993. From 1993 to 1997, Vice-Rector of the Seminario Vescovile di Andria. From 28 August 1997 to 22 May 2009, he was Rector of the Seminario Vescovile di Andria. From 1993 to 1999, he taught religion at the Liceo classico di Andria.

Canon of the Cathedral Chapter of Andria since February 1998. From 1993 to 2009, Director of the Centro Diocesano Vocazioni di Andria.

From 1993 to 1997, Director of the Scuola di formazione all’impegno socio-politico of the Diocese of Andria. Director of the Biblioteca diocesana San Tommaso d’Aquino in Andria since 1999. Director of the Archivio Diocesano “san Luca ev.” of the Diocese of Andria since 2004.

From 1999 to 2009, founder and editor of the diocesan monthly “Insieme”.

Director of the Scuola di formazione per Operatori pastorali of the Diocese of Andria since 2005.

From 2002 to 2009, Vice-Postulator of the cause for the beatification of the Venerable Giuseppe di Donna, Bishop of Andria. Since 22 May 2009, Rector of the Pontificio Seminario Regionale Pugliese in Molfetta.

Chaplain of His Holiness since 6 July 2009. Secretary of the Commissione per l’Anno giubilare della sacra Spina 2015–2016.

Appointed to the episcopal see of Cerignola–Ascoli Satriano on 1 October 2015.

Ordained a bishop on 2 January 2016.

Apostolic Visitor for Seminaries in Italy. Member of the Commissione Episcopale per la Dottrina della Fede, l’Annuncio e la Catechesi. Secretary of the Conferenza Episcopale Pugliese.

From 8 May 2018 to 26 January 2019, Apostolic Administrator of Manfredonia–Vieste–San Giovanni Rotondo.

Since 27 May 2021, President of the Commissione per i problemi sociali e il lavoro, la giustizia e la pace of the Conferenza Episcopale Italiana. He currently serves as Apostolic Visitor for Seminaries in Italy, member of the Commissione Episcopale per la Dottrina della Fede, l’Annuncio e la Catechesi, and Secretary of the Conferenza Episcopale Pugliese. Academic appointments: Assistant in Moral Theology to Prof. Mauro Cozzoli at the Istituto Teologico Pugliese since the 1998–1999 academic year.

Lecturer in Moral Theology (social moral theology; theology of physical life; marriage; bioethics) at the Facoltà Teologica Pugliese–Istituto Teologico “Regina Apuliae” in Molfetta since the 1999–2000 academic year. From the 2006–2007 to the 2008–2009 academic year, he directed the project of the Department of Practical Theology of the Facoltà Teologica Pugliese on “Neuroscience and human behaviour”.

He edited the Rivista di Scienze Religiose of the Istituto Teologico “Regina Apuliae” in Molfetta from 2008 to 2010.

He has been a permanent lecturer in Moral Theology since the 2012–2013 academic year.

Training in Rome in July 2024 on the theme of the riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia

Date and Place of Birth: 02/06/1937, Alsazia

After graduating in Theology from the Université de Strasbourg, in 1968 he obtained a licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontificio Istituto Biblico and, in 1970, a licentiate in Theology from the Pontificia Università Lateranense. In 1968, he began teaching Theology at the training schools of the Movimento dei Focolari.

Speaker at the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia, held in Cotonou, Benin, on 25 and 26 November 2023. Title of the presentation: “The Works of Mercy before and after the year 2016, dedicated to Divine Mercy in the Universal Church”.

Date and Place of Birth: 20/11/1964 Galatina (LE)

The seventh of eight children, she lost her father before the age of four and grew up in a family that was materially poor but rich in values. This is precisely why Maria Luce loves to draw close to others and always seeks out those on the margins, because that is where she finds true wealth.

She lives in Otranto and is married. She is the mother of four children and grandmother of six grandchildren.

Diploma: Catering technician

Profession: cook

She began volunteering at the age of 12 in Galatina with CVS (Centro Volontari della Sofferenza) and has volunteered in Otranto since 1983, when the Misericordia was founded.

She has served on the Board of Directors for approximately 20 years, including nine years as Governor, and has been Custodian of the Misericordia for two years.

She has undertaken two missions in Bethlehem. She has made two pilgrimages to Lourdes and the Holy Land and one to Fatima.

Researcher at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland and associate researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and Nuffield College, University of Oxford. She holds a PhD in Economics from the Università Cattolica di Milano. She describes herself as a social scientist with a background in applied economics and econometrics, whose research focuses on development and the interactions among populations, development and technological change. Her research uses both econometric techniques and experimental methods to address major global issues with an interdisciplinary approach. From 2017 to 2019, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Dondena Centre at Università Bocconi under the supervision of Professor Francesco Billari. In the coming years, she aims to study fertility, migration and socio-economic development through laboratory, field and neuroeconomic experiments. She is an economist of “The Economy of Francesco”.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

Date and Place of Birth: 23/05/1966 Caltanissetta

Bishop of the Diocese of Noto. Born in Caltanissetta on 23 May 1966, he was ordained a priest on 29 June 1990 and a bishop on 18 March 2023. He first obtained a canonical Bachelor’s degree in Theology from the Istituto teologico “Mons. G. Guttadauro” in Caltanissetta (1990), followed by a licentiate in Theology specialising in catechetics from the Istituto teologico “San Tommaso” in Messina (1997), and finally, in 2006, a doctorate in Theology from the Università Pontificia Salesiana in Rome, again specialising in catechetics, with a thesis on La catechesi ai giovani nel magistero di Giovanni Paolo II. On 29 June 1990, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Caltanissetta by Bishop Alfredo Maria Garsia. Immediately involved in various pastoral roles caring for young people, he also taught youth ministry and the sociology of youth at the Istituto teologico “San Tommaso” in Messina (2016–2022). He also taught catechetics and pastoral theology at the Istituto teologico “Mons. G. Guttadauro” in Caltanissetta (2000–2022) and pastoral theology at the Pontificia facoltà teologica di Sicilia “San Giovanni Evangelista” in Palermo (2019–2021). After serving as director of the Ufficio diocesano di pastorale giovanile (1995–2007), from 2007 he directed the Ufficio catechistico diocesano, a position he held alongside that of parish priest of the Sacro Cuore parish in Caltanissetta (since 2000) when he was appointed bishop. On 22 December 2022, Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of Noto; he succeeded Antonio Staglianò, who had previously been appointed President of the Pontificia accademia di teologia. On 18 March 2023, he received episcopal ordination in Noto Cathedral from Mario Russotto, Bishop of Caltanissetta, with co-consecrators Antonio Staglianò, his predecessor in Noto, Francesco Lomanto, Metropolitan Archbishop of Syracuse, and Giuseppe La Placa, Bishop of Ragusa. During the same celebration, he took possession of the diocese.

Born in Argentina in 1965, he was ordained a diocesan priest in 1990. He holds a licentiate in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome, with a thesis in the Theology of Communication; a Master of Business Administration (MBA); and a doctorate (PhD) from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid’s Higher Technical School of Telecommunications Engineering, in the Biomedical Engineering programme. He served as information technology adviser to the Argentine Episcopal Conference; Executive Secretary of the Systems Office of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) in Bogotá and Technical Coordinator of the Digital Network of the Church in Latin America (RIIAL); President of the Centro para la Formación y el Desarrollo de Software para la Iglesia en América Latina Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe; Head of Systems for the Congregation for the Clergy; and collaborator of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. He taught Digital Technologies at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome and Meta-languages of Communication at the Instituto Teológico Pastoral (ITEPAL) in Colombia. He has spoken at numerous conferences and seminars and written articles on the Church in the digital age. He headed the Vatican Internet Service of the Telecommunications Directorate until June 2015, when he was appointed Secretary of the new Dicastery for Communication.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

Director and founding member of the Institute for Global Dialogue and the Culture of Encounter (IGDCE), an organisation that works closely with Pope Francis. Over the past ten years, she has also become one of the leading voices in education and training for Argentina’s water and sanitation sector. Her experience is based on more than 25 years of work in adult education and managerial-level educational projects, in which she has assisted public- and private-sector organisations. She has been involved in creating, directing and developing three higher education institutes in the fields of business, sustainability, water and technology, and was part of the leadership team that created Argentina’s first Water University. She has also taught courses and seminars at many Latin American universities, including the Universidad de San Andrés, the Universidad Tecnológica de El Salvador, the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas and the Universidad Popular Autónoma de Puebla in Mexico. She directed the implementation of the first online programmes in the energy sector for the Center of Regulatory Studies in Energy at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, a programme launched in 2004 that continues today. More recently, she directed the Diploma in Advanced Urban Sanitation delivered in Argentina by IHE Delft in the Netherlands. In her role as Executive Director and Director of IGDCE, she has worked on designing and developing initiatives concerning the right to water, including international seminars at the Pontificia Accademia delle Scienze in the Vatican and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, international online forums, and an international water programme that reached more than 100 participants from 17 Latin American countries, enabling them to act as agents of change in water governance. She has also worked on more than 20 complex water-related cases over the past two years. In 2021, together with partner organisations including CELAM, REPAM, Cáritas América Latina y el Caribe, CLAR, CEAMA, Dicasterium pro Communicatione and the Institute for Global Dialogue and the Culture of Encounter, she led the implementation of the first Giorno della Speranza. She was one of the first active members of the World Bank’s Equal Aqua platform, which promotes women’s participation in the water sector, and she directs the training area that, through the trade union, supports the development of more than 8,000 water-sector workers in Argentina each year. She has regularly collaborated with international organisations and universities as a liaison for projects aimed at deepening dialogue and building collaborative and learning frameworks. Her publications include contributions to the International Journal of Water Resources Development (2020–2022); Un’ecologia integrale per il 21° secolo (2019); Una pedagogia per una virtualità inclusiva (2008); and La virtualità nel mondo della conoscenza (2007). Gabriela Sacco is a civil engineer specialising in hydraulics and holds a Master’s degree in Training from the University of Leicester (UK), a Diploma in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the London School of Economics (UK), a Diploma in Marketing from Cornell University (USA), and a specialisation in Future Scenarios Planning from the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford (UK). Gabriela’s main interests lie in creating and developing education and knowledge-transfer projects aimed at strengthening public policy and governance in the water and socio-environmental sectors, with a strong emphasis on constructive dialogue, building bridges of understanding through learning experiences, promoting inclusion and community participation, and ensuring equitable access to knowledge and human rights.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

Paola Carmen Salamino was an art history teacher. She is a consecrated member of the Istituto Secolare dei “Servi della Sofferenza”, conceived by Padre Pio and established by Mons. Pierino Galeone, whose charism is to serve those who suffer through the Works of Mercy.

Antonino “Nino” Savarino served as Mayor of Rosolini, a small town in the Province of Syracuse. A Law graduate, he is a criminal lawyer and served as an Honorary Deputy Magistrate in the magistrates’ courts of Noto and Pachino. Promoter and founder of the Misericordia di Rosolini, of which he is Governor, he served as Area Coordinator of the Misericordie of Ragusa and Syracuse. He was President of the Gruppo Donatori di Sangue Fratres and is currently a member of the Collegio Nazionale dei Probiviri of the Confederazione delle Misericordie. A writer and musician, he enjoys playing the electric guitar and is a member of the band “Talè cu c’è”.

Date and Place of Birth: 06/06/1966, India

Parish priest of Sant’Antonino in Bellariva (FI).

President of the Misericordie of Ragusa and Syracuse.

War correspondent and writer. Over the past twenty years, she has covered major conflict zones including Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, Pakistan, Yemen and Sudan. She currently writes for the weekly L’Espresso and for Il Fatto, Il Messaggero, L’Eco di Bergamo, Il Secolo XIX, La Stampa, National Geographic, Famiglia Cristiana, La Repubblica, D di Repubblica and Elle. Her articles have also appeared in Avvenire. She has worked with radio stations including Radio 24, Radio Rai, Radio Popolare and Radio Svizzera Italiana, and television channels including RAI, RAI News 24, Sky TG24, LA7 and TV Svizzera Italiana. She has received numerous awards, including the Premio Luchetta, Premio Antonio Russo, Italian Women in the World, Premio Maria Grazia Cutuli and the 2022 Premio Nazionale Donna organised by Onlus Antonio Padovani. She co-founded and co-directs the web radio station Radio Bullets, which covers international affairs and culture. She is based in Rome.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

A graduate in Agricultural Sciences and scientific director of the “Libere tenerezze, Laudato si” project, a regenerative humanistic garden in prison. Consultant in regenerative agriculture using Effective Microorganisms.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

Biblical scholar and the first woman theologian in the Catholic Church in Egypt. Member of the Italian and Middle Eastern Biblical Federations.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

A leading figure among women in the Italian and international Church, she served as President of the Coordinamento delle teologhe italiane until 2021, an ecumenical association of women theologians that promotes gender studies in theology, biblical studies, patristics and history from an ecumenical perspective and encourages the visibility of women theologians in Italy’s Church and cultural landscape. She obtained a licentiate in Theological Anthropology and subsequently a doctorate in Theology and Patristic Sciences. She teaches Christian Antiquities and Ancient Theology at the Facoltà di Teologia dell’Italia Settentrionale in Milan and in Verona. For Piemme, she wrote a commentary on Pope Francis’s encyclical “Laudato Sì: Sulla cura della casa comune”. Together with Rita Torti, she directs the series “Madri della fede”. A writer, her latest publications include “Manuale di Storia della Chiesa – Età antica”, “Incontri. Memorie e prospettive della teologia femminista” and “Eva, la prima donna”.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

Sister of the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. She graduated in Economics and Business from Università Roma Tre in 2001 and obtained a PhD in Political Economy from Università La Sapienza in Rome in 2006. In 2014, she obtained a PhD in Economics from the School of Economics at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom. She is a founding member and lecturer at SEC and a member of the Consiglio Nazionale del Terzo Settore, the Ethics Committee of Etica SGR, and the scientific and organising committee of the Settimane sociali dei Cattolici (CEI). She teaches Political Economy and Statistics at the Pontificia Facoltà di Scienze dell’Educazione Auxilium and is a member of the institution’s board of directors. She also teaches Economics, Ethics and Finance at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Università Pontificia Salesiana and on the Master’s programme in Civil and Non-Profit Economics at the Università degli Studi di Milano–Bicocca. She is the author of several publications on the economic theories of cooperation and ideal-driven organisations and contributes articles to L’Osservatore Romano on current affairs, the role of women, work and young people. In 2018, she was an auditor at the Synod of Bishops devoted to young people. In 2019, Pope Francis appointed her Councillor of Vatican City State and Consultor to the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. Since 2020, she has coordinated the economic task force of the Vatican COVID-19 Commission. In 2021, she was awarded a title in the Order of the Star of Italy for her academic achievements and commitment to ethical principles in business and finance. In the same year, the Holy Father appointed her Interim Secretary of the Dicastery and Delegate for the Vatican COVID-19 Commission. In April 2022, the Holy Father appointed her Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. She is a member of the “Donne per un nuovo Rinascimento” commission established by the Minister for Equal Opportunities and the Family, Elena Bonetti.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

After attending first the diocesan seminary of Nola and then the regional seminary of Salerno, he obtained a doctorate in Theology from the Pontificia Università Gregoriana and a degree in Political Science from Università La Sapienza in Rome. He teaches Theology at the Pontificia Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia Meridionale. Since 1992, he has served in the First Section of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. In 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed him Archbishop-Prelate of Pompeii and Pontifical Delegate for the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Bishop of Assisi–Nocera Umbra–Gualdo Tadino. In 2016, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. In 2021, he also became Bishop of the Diocese of Foligno after Pope Francis united it in persona episcopi with the Diocese of Assisi–Nocera Umbra–Gualdo Tadino. He is Secretary of the Conferenza Episcopale Umbra and, since 2010, has held responsibility for the laity, family and life, and education, schools and universities. He is considered one of the leading scholars of the Catholic economist Giuseppe Toniolo, to whom he has devoted several volumes. He is President of the Organising Committee of “The Economy of Francesco”.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

Date and Place of Birth: 17/07/1981 Modica (RG)

Mayor of Rosolini. He granted honorary citizenship to Luigi Spadoni and promoted the 2023 “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention held in Noto.

Date and Place of Birth: 07/06/1973 Firenze

Regional Councillor of Tuscany for Social Policies, Public Housing and International Cooperation.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Director of Caritas di Pistoia and Delegate of Caritas Toscana.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

President of the Consorzio Sociale Abele Lavoro and co-director of the Biennale della Prossimità, he supervises work teams in the social sector.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Date and Place of Birth: 16/03/1958 Foligno (PG)

Member of the European Parliament since 2024. Until 2023, he was editor-in-chief of Avvenire. A former scout leader in Agesci, he is married and has two daughters. Originally from Assisi in Umbria, he has lived between Milan and Rome for many years. An expert in domestic and international politics, he began his career as a reporter at “La Voce”, a Catholic weekly where he worked from 1981 to 1984. In 1983, he began contributing to the daily newspaper “Corriere dell’Umbria”, where he became a professional journalist. In 1988, he moved to Rome to join “La Gazzetta”, directed by Giuseppe Crescimbeni, who placed him in charge of political coverage. In 1990, Franco Cangini invited him to join “Il Tempo”, where he initially covered foreign affairs, then returned to political and parliamentary reporting and eventually became head of the political desk and an editorial writer. In 1994, he left “Il Tempo” for “Avvenire”, accepting an offer from the newly appointed editor Dino Boffo. At the national Catholic-inspired newspaper, where he was a political columnist for many years, he served as editor-in-chief first of the central newsroom in Milan and then of the Rome newsroom; he became deputy editor in 2007 and editor in 2009. He has received various journalism awards, including the “Penna d’Oro”, “Valerio Volpini”, “Civitas Casertana-Le buone notizie”, “Fregene” and “Renzo Foa”. On 14 June 2012, the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore paid tribute to him. On 13 December 2011, Benedict XVI appointed him Consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

He was a speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

He studied Economics at the universities of Leuven and Namur in Belgium. He served as Director for French-speaking West Africa at the research organisation Innovations for Poverty Action. As Research Director at the University of Zurich, he leads a longitudinal study in Malawi. He is a doctoral candidate in Development Economics at the Università di Firenze.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

National Councillor of UNITALSI.

Speaker at the 2023 “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

Former Director of Caritas Diocesana di Lucca, over the years she has worked in development cooperation, social planning and combating poverty, with an approach focused on the circular economy, civil economy, participatory dynamics and community development.

Director of the Fondazione per la Coesione Sociale ONLUS since 2022.

In 2021, during “I martedì di spazio + spadoni”, she led a meeting on the encyclical “Fratelli Tutti”.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

Born in 1960, he attended primary school in Kahondo and secondary school at the Apostles of Jesus Seminary.

He entered the Apostles of Jesus Novitiate in 1981 for two years.

He obtained a Diploma in Philosophy and a degree from the Urbaniana in 1989.

He was ordained a priest on 1 October 1989, served as Director of Novices from 1993 to 1998 and as Vice-Rector of Theology from 1999 to 2003.

He obtained a licentiate in Moral Theology in 2002.

From 2004 to 2010, he served as Rector of the Apostles of Jesus Philosophicum, after which he served as a parish priest for four years until 2019.

He is currently Director of a college for young men and women.

Speaker at the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia promoted and supported by spazio + spadoni in Mbarara, Uganda.

Priest of the Diocese of Lucca. Author of the book “Giuseppe di Nazaret alla ricerca del suo vero volto”.

He was born in 1964 in a small village in Val Borbera, in the Province of Alessandria, where he still lives. He entered the world of confraternities approximately forty years ago, inspired by the passion others shared with him. His interests in the field developed first through historical research and later through contacts with the “mother houses”, which helped him understand the importance of renewal grounded in the ancient experience expressed by these associations. He therefore began working in training and public outreach concerning confraternal associations. Since 2008, he has been National Delegate for the Confraternities of the Trinitarian “family”. Since 2011, he has been Governor of the Confraternita della Trinità e Misericordia di Serravalle Scrivia (AL). Since 2018, he has been President of Novazione onlus “azione per Novi”, which works to restore the historic Misericordia di Novi Ligure. He is a 118 emergency services instructor. He works for the ambulance association in Stazzano (AL), which recently joined the Misericordie “network”.

Founding member of SEC – Scuola di Economia Civile, founder and CFO of è.one – abitareègenerativo S.r.l., and business consultant. A graduate in DES – Economic and Social Disciplines from Università Bocconi in Milan, he works in the management, consultancy and administration of for-profit companies, congregations and non-profit organisations. Over the years, his professional career has been enriched by important experiences in human and social development. A key experience was the three and a half years he spent in Curitiba, Brazil, as Director of the Centro Professionale of Rede Esperança Brasil, alongside managing the economic and financial aspects of the “Centro di Promozione Umana”, a major support centre for women from the Piraquara favela, as well as artistic and cultural activities. After returning to Italy, he worked with professional organisations providing personal services, including community and social, health and social care services ranging from social housing to addiction support. He designed and developed social cohesion services in Milan and Brianza and provided consultancy to religious congregations and companies working in social services, healthcare and real estate. In particular, for 17 years he directed conVoi onlus, an association operating in Milan and Brianza through day and residential services and social support projects.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention.

Missione “Speranza e Carità” of Fratel Biagio Conte. The Missione di Speranza e Carità is the greatest gift that Fratel Biagio Conte left to Palermo and the entire community. Following Fratel Biagio’s death, leadership of the Mission passed to Don Pino Vitrano, its co-founder and spiritual guide.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia” Convention.

After studying administration and gaining a strong and formative experience in scouting, Gaetano Volpe has served as Secretary of the Misericordia di Orta Nova (FG) for 26 years. He conceived and manages the Banchi di Carità operating within the same Confraternity, for which he is also Services Coordinator. He is responsible for various social and educational projects involving both minors and psychiatric patients, as well as social reintegration projects carried out in collaboration with the court, including community service. He is responsible for the Servizio Civile Misericordie in Apulia and is its national contact person.

He served as a tutor for the spazio + spadoni HIC SUM project and as an Ambassador of the Works of Mercy.

Date and Place of Birth: 07/08/1967, Camerun

Emmanuel Dassi Youfang is a Cameroonian Catholic prelate and has been Bishop of the Diocese of Bafia, Cameroon, since 2020. Previously, from November 2016 to May 2020, he served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Bafoussam, Cameroon. He was appointed a bishop by Pope Francis on 7 November 2016. On the same day, he was appointed Titular Bishop of Oescus. He was consecrated and installed as Bishop in Bafoussam on 11 July 2020.

He promoted and organised the Forum sulla riEvoluzione delle Opere di Misericordia in his diocese in June 2024.

In March 2023, he established the first diocesan office devoted to the Works of Mercy in the Diocese of Bafia, led by Sister Marie Noelle Messini.

Stefano Zamagni is Professor of Political Economy at the Università di Bologna; Adjunct Professor of International Political Economy at the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center; and Visiting Professor at the Istituto Universitario Sophia in Loppiano. He graduated in Economics and Business from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and completed advanced studies at Linacre College, University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Before joining Bologna, he taught at the Università di Parma and, until 2007, taught History of Economic Analysis at Università L. Bocconi in Milan. He served as Vice-President of the Società Italiana degli Economisti and Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the Università di Bologna, and directed the Department of Economics and the University Master’s programme in Cooperative Economics at the Università di Bologna. In the late 1990s, he was President of the University Diploma programme, later transformed into a degree programme, in the Economics of Cooperative Enterprises and Non-Profit Organisations at the Forlì campus. He served as President of the Scientific Committee of the Associazione Italiana per la Cultura Cooperativa e delle Organizzazioni Non Profit (AICCON), the Agenzia per il Terzo Settore, the Osservatorio Nazionale per le Politiche Familiari and the Scientific Committee of the Scuola Superiore di Politiche per la Salute. As a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, between 2007 and 2009 he was one of Pope Benedict XVI’s principal collaborators in drafting the encyclical “Caritas in Veritate”. In 2013, Pope Francis appointed him an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and subsequently promoted him to President. He is the author of numerous academic publications, books, edited volumes and essays, as well as contributions to cultural and civic debate.

Speaker at the “Fare Spazio alla Reciprocità” Convention and the “Fare Spazio al Coraggio” Convention.

A Camillian priest, he has devoted his life to brothers and sisters in difficulty, founding Le Tende di Cristo for them in Italy and around the world. Today, these are numerous family-style places of welcome where marginalised people are cared for and mercy is practised every day.