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Father Alex Zanotelli was born in Livo (Trento, Italy) on August 26, 1938. He is a member of Combonian missionaries in Verona, Italy. He is the founder of many Italian movements, which he inspired with the goal of creating the conditions for peace and for a social system grounded on solidarity, a system where "the last" have the same right to citizenship as anyone else.
A short biography
His education and stay in the U.S.A.
He had already started high school, when he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to attend a course on theology. Those were the years of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, which deeply influenced young Alex. We could say that his theological education was therefore of "the american school". In 1964, after completing his theological studies in Cincinnati, he was ordained priest.
We can excerpt from his biography, written by Mario Lancisi, a synthesis of that period of his life: "Mother always wished that for me. I didn't care to study, neither to become a priest. When I took my decision she worked hard and took up the burden to try and make it possible for me to go on studying. But I felt tha life could have a much greater, a much wider meaning. I felt that life was beautiful as long as you gave it away."
Sudan and the Nuba
As a combonian missionary he left for southern Sudan, which was plagued by civil war and where he stayed for eigth years. The local government finally intimated him to leave, because of his courageous christian witness and the open and active solidarity he showed the Nuba people. The reason of the government (and part of the vatican authorities') hostility (a problem which he'll have to face times and again in his life) was his decision to include african traditional cerimonials in mass celebrations, although the decision had been taken in respect of and in accord with the catholic bishops. This resulted quite bothering both to the local sudanese authorities, which feared a dangerous mixture between a "foreign religion" and the local rites and cerimonies of a downcast people, and to the roman high prelates who were actually finding it quite hard to even accept the reforms brought on by the Vatican II council.
His sermons were fiery: he denounced unjustices while exposing the resposabilities of corrupted government and administration functionaries which stuffed their pockets with both international and local aid funds. His goal was to apply the Word of the New Testament to the current situation he lived in: his american education in faith building being applied to the schemes of african corruption.
The period in Verona, as director of "Nigrizia" magazine
The house of the combonians in Verona was a quiet place of gathering for most of the senior priests coming home from the mission fields, but it also hosted a printing company, publishing two different magazines: "The little missionary" and "Nigrizia", a magazine which was a sort of newsletter of the various missions around the world and was first published back in 1883. In 1978 Alex becomes director of "Nigrizia" and works to make it more of an information monthly, with a goal which can be summed up in his statement: «To be at Africa's service, specifically 'the voice of those who have no voice" to radically criticize the political-economical system of the north of the world and the way it produces more and more misery in the south, destroying the most beautiful, significant, authentical african values».
On his magazine, and for about ten years, Zanotelli takes more specific stands on weapons dealing, on the cooperation for development having turned into an entangled business, on south african apartheid. All these matters had been taken on steadfastly and systematically, with the collaboration of the missionaries present on the different fields. His being the fulcrum of such magazine, associated to his being such a natural and charismatic leader, will contribute to the inspiration and foundation of the movement "Blessed peace builders", at the head of which he fought many battles, in the name of a "oneworld" culture and for the civil and human rights of all people.
In 1987, various political and vatican leaders urged him to leave the direction of "Nigrizia". He was practicallly fired. At that time Alex Zanotelli was targeted by continuous attacks, but the goal was to undermine the growth and diffusion of the recently born movement he had inspired.
He denounced publicly the top of the italian political leadership of the time, Andreotti and Spadolini, Craxi and Piccoli. He actually anticipated the "Tangentopoli" season. In his words: “It all started back in january 1985 when I published on the magazine an editorial titled “The italian face of african famine”, an open and cutting exposure of the system which revolved around Third World aid. All hell went loose - commented father Alex - . Tangentopoli could be exposed then, they had all the clues. From african famine we passed on to weapons dealing, to environmental problems, we exposed the whole system of entanglement between the political class and business. Spadolini on the ’Espresso' magazine, attacked heavily the so-called red priests. He even got to the point of accusing me of incitement to political delinquency and international terrorism.”
The period 1985-87 resulted in a hard time of mobbing, with part of the Vatican hierarchy and of the "old missionaries" trying to bend him or expell him. Zanotelli described it as "a time of great personal suffering" which led him to a spiritual crisis and to doubting: "Am I really sure I told the truth? Can it be possible 50 milions italians are unable to see these scandals?” His cultural heritage has passed on to the following directors and editors of the magazine, and still keeps "Nigrizia" alive.
Korogocho, or Hell on earth
In the local language the name Korogocho means confusion, chaos. Zanotelli stayed in Korogocho, one of the many shantytowns surrounding Nairobi, (Kenya), until 2001. He founded many small christian communities and a workers' cooperative for recycling, which employed many of the inhabitants of the shanties; he urged and helped in the Udada project, a community of former prostitutes involved in helping the women who wanted to change their life and at the same time he was working and struggling for the reforms about land distribution, one of the turning points in Kenian politics.
In Korogocho human degradation was frightful and Zanotelli's assumption "Maybe God is sick" became the title of a book on Africa, written by Walter Veltroni, former secretary of the italian DS party ( Democratici di Sinistra, left wing democratics), presently major of Rome and the only political leader (besides Jesse Jackson, the democratic afro-american reverend) who ever visited the place.
In Korogocho God's sicknesses are named AIDS, hunger, prostitution, drugs, alcoholism, violence.
In another short excerpt from his biography written by Mario Lancisi, Zanotelli answers to a question about his ever doubting about God's existence:
“Yes, I did. Times and again. When you find yourself in such unbelievable situations, facing the suffering of innocents, just like it happened to me in Korogocho, the very first doubt is precisely about God' existence. Because you can't help but ask yourself: 'if You are there, how can You ever not intervene to put a stop to such atrocious suffering?' But, today, God is helpless, He is sick. He'll be able to recover when we will. We are the only ones who can and must do something about it, today. God can't. Not anymore. Each and everyone of us is important to help life come through...".
Don't you think God is all powerful, then?
“The more I think about it the more I realize that maybe God is not all powerful the way we believe Him to be. He is the God of the cross. Why didn't He answer the prayer of Jesus on the cross? It is a mistery. Maybe He is a weak God, Who sets limits to what He can do and will only be able to save us only through and by our will”.
The Lilliput Net
During the sabbatic year Father Alex Zanotelli spent in Italy, in 1995-96, probably inspired by the internet structure, he works on laying the foundations of the Lilliput Net project.
The project is the results of numerous meetings with catholic associations, but an important role was also played by the thougths of Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello, as outlined in their book "Global village or global pillage - Economic recostruction from the bottom up" .
In Italy, Father Alex becomes a point of reference for the new global movement and the Lilliput Net. He personally takes part actively in the organization and management of the european Social Forum in Florence (6-10 november 2002), which will confirm the supremacy of the non-violent policy of the movement on a relatively small minority which (after the violence exploded during the Genoa G8 meeting in july 2001) was tempted to stand for a more violent manifestation of dissent.
In Florence, Zanotelli spoke clearly to the extremist wings of the movement and expressed the concept of " civilization of tenderness": " Active non-violence is not merely pacifism, it is something different. I started reading Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Don Milani, Mazzolari and they helped me to realize it had been Jesus of Nazareth who first practised non violence, the same non violence that was crushed by the roman imperialism, in Galilee. I'd like to beg of you, with all my heart, to find the courage for such a radical choice: non-violence. The present system is naturally violent. We have to build a non violent system, a 'civilization of tenderness'."
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