CERESOLE REALE – Three intense, true and profound days in the second edition of the “word in-sorgente” Festival in Ceresole Reale, a small pearl in the Gran Paradiso National Park. A parterre of the highest professional profile from all over Italy coordinated by the impeccable Fabio Cantelli Anibaldi. Among the numerous participants, Don Luigi Ciotti, SE Antonio Staglianò, the journalist and writer Catia Acquesta, the host and writer Bruno Gambarotta, the writer Loretta Patrini, the author, entrepreneur and main sponsor of the event Paolo Costa, the journalist Jacopo Ricca and the writer Walter Siti.
“Living, not just surviving: from the hole of suffering and anguish to the open air of rebirth”, the theme discussed by Acquesta president of Alleati con Te, the first Italian association supporting all associations against violence. “Testifying that it is possible to be reborn from pain and suffering, walking through the memory of the traumas suffered is not at all simple – says Acquesta – but it helps those who are going through a dark moment in life to feel less alone. Chorality saves us. It takes a lot of courage and also choosing to forgive those who have hurt us, as I write in my latest book “Forgive, Reborn, Love”. Forgiveness saves us, it is a gift we give to ourselves not to our tormentor. It allows us not to be a victim once again or for our whole life by continuing to live in resentment for what has been done to us”.
Among the various books presented, also that of the author Paolo Costa, “Corpi nell’acqua”, in a very interesting dialogue with the writer Bruno Gambarotta. “They have been very intense days – says Costa – for this second edition of the Festival “La montagna disincantata”. In what was the ballroom of the King of Sardinia (now intelligently managed by the Gran Paradiso National Park Authority), a group of friends gave life, for the duration of three unforgettable days, to a series of meetings, pleasant for the simplicity of the expositions, interesting for their depth. Each of the participants gave a precious and important contribution”.
Don Luigi Ciotti emphasized that “the return to being human, which was discussed in Ceresole, requires everyone to examine their conscience, a clear and uncompromising analysis of their own experiences and responsibilities. Too many – starting with those who hold political and economic power – do not see or do not want to see the relational nature of the human being. We are made of otherness and diversity, we are “mixed-race” by nature. And it is difficult to take care of the other in front of us if we have not first recognized the other in us, the other who lives within us, the other who we ultimately are. Without this recognition that broadens the mind’s gaze and opens the soul to welcome, the world will continue to divide itself between “suitable” and “abnormal”, between rich and poor or, to quote Primo Levi, between the drowned and the saved”.
SE Antonio Stagliano’ in his speech also addressed the importance of ‘Pop-Theology’ to communicate with young people who no longer go to Church and yet need to be able to encounter Christianity wherever they are: “Even on Spotify – he says – through songs, especially those whose lyrics intercept human dramas in search of hope, redemption and liberation. It is clear that Pop-Theology does not have the mission of “bringing young people to Church”, but of presenting Christianity as interesting for their lives: Christianity, in fact, is the presentation of the beautiful and good humanity of Jesus who lives of love and thus reveals the “justice of love”, manifests the truth of love in the gift of pushing the gift of life to death. Here is the beauty that will save the world, you see it in the Crucifix that manifests the true face of God only and always love. He is a God who does not take revenge, does not get angry, does not send plagues or punishments, rather forgives and has mercy. Discovering in Jesus this God-agape humanizes the life of everyone, including that of young people, who should not seek models of humanity that are instead forms of barbarism and brutalization, proposed by the hypermarket society”.
The creator and moderator of the festival, Fabio Cantelli, philosopher and writer: “In Ceresole we tried to talk about society from a perspective outside the dictates of sociology and psychology. The aspiration was to go beyond the usual dualism between individual and social – and all that follows in terms of political and cultural conflicts – to stop and reflect on the existential, that is, on the meaning of our being on this Earth and on how to live with humans who are different from us but with whom it is perhaps possible to find something that unites us and makes us feel somehow similar, somehow a community. An objective that presupposes, however, going to the roots of the question, to the needs, hopes, desires and fears that have always characterized our passage on Earth. In this vertical exploration, in this plumbing of depths, the meaning of the title of the Festival is contained: not to remain human but to return to being human”.
