Chiesa di Santa Giovanna Antida Thouret

In the same years, Pope John Paul II announced (Pentecost vigil 17 May 1986) for the diocese of Rome the convocation of the second diocesan synod, under the guidance of the Cardinal Vicar, to deepen knowledge of the religious and social situation in the light of the theme: Communion and Mission of the Church of God in Rome on the threshold of the third millennium.The path of study and deepening lasted seven years and ended with the new Cardinal Vicar Camillo Ruini on 29 May 1993 (Pentecost vigil).The pastoral synod was characterised by a fruitful period, full of commitment and a rediscovery of that ecclesiology of communion expressed in the Second Vatican Council.The Book of the Synod that the Cardinal delivered into the hands of the Pontiff was promulgated, approved, and handed back to the people of God with the exhortation to implement it and converge the multiplicity of gifts in a shared journey to fulfil the common mission.The synodal experience allowed the parish to open up to a deeper knowledge of new realities, the Prefecture (comprising a number of neighbouring parishes, then presided over by Bishop Paolo Schiavon, the current bishop of the Southern sector) and to the knowledge of the Diocese.The wind of the Spirit gave new momentum and impetus to the fledgling parish.
In 1988, the Cardinal, in a new meeting with the parish pastoral council, called for a serious and responsible commitment to demonstrate how much he cared about the construction of the church.A large part of the population made monthly contributions, according to their financial means (bear in mind that everyone was still paying off the mortgage on the recently purchased house).The other three and a half billion for the completion of the complex was provided by the diocese.The design of the new parish complex was entrusted to the architects Carlo Bevilacqua and Annamaria Feci.In October 1989, preparatory work began on the area by the company DEBA appalti s.r.l., under the direction of the Vicariate Technical Office.
On 13 May 1990, welcomed by a festive and grateful jubilation of all the people, in the presence of civil and religious authorities, Cardinal Poletti laid the foundation stone of the church.Before leaving the office of Vicar, Cardinal Poletti visited the building site in its final phase, congratulating the construction company and the parish committee in charge of fundraising and raising awareness among the faithful.The church has an octagonal floor plan, with a seating capacity of 600 and standing room for about 300.The roof was made of laminated wood, recalling some of the motifs of northern churches.The auditorium below had a capacity of about 400 seats.
In 1978, housing developments began in the neighbourhood included in the Vigna Murata Area Plan 40, which ended in 1985, with a total of about 3,000 flats.Don Francesco Di Domenico, who came to live here, ensured the Sunday Eucharistic celebration from '78 .In 1980, the parish of St Joan Antida Thouret was established, whose first parish priest was Fr Walter Boccioni.The Vicariate of Rome made available some business premises in Via Lorgna, where celebrations, sacramental catechesis and some pastoral activities were held.For Christmas or other liturgical celebrations that were more popular, celebrations were held under a circus tent, while in May for the feast of the patron saint, the Eucharist was celebrated outdoors, on the large lawn at the intersection of Via Gradi and Via Cerva.
The Cardinal Vicar Ugo Poletti, appreciating the enthusiasm and commitment of the various parish groups present and their initiatives, promoted and encouraged fundraising for the construction of the church, took possession of the land allocated for this purpose by the land use plan, and placed a prefabricated building on it, which still exists today, to start other pastoral activities.In 1990 Cardinal Poletti attended the laying of the foundation stone and in 1993 Cardinal Ruini consecrated the new church.Work continued on the outdoor areas with the definition of the area for sports activities; two more large halls for community meetings were built.The Synod of the Church of Rome was taking place in those years.
In 1995, the Holy Father John Paul II visited our parish: the hall where he received the parish pastoral council and representatives of all associations is dedicated to him.In 2000, the parish hosted many young people participating in the Jubilee and World Youth Day.Gradually larger groups of young people from the parish joined subsequent WYDs, from Santiago de Compostela in 1989, to Toronto 2002, Cologne 2005, and Sydney 2008.In 2008, parish priest Fr Walter returned to the Father's house due to a sudden illness.Cardinal Vallini installed the new parish priest Fr Massimiliano Nazio, who is giving a major boost to all the activities in the parish.He has renovated the hall on the ground floor, created a theatre with all the technical equipment, rebuilt the sports facilities, set up a family centre for children, instituted perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and organised two editions of the living nativity scene.And this is just the beginning ....
The territory of our parish lies between via di Vigna Murata to the north, the Cecchignola ditch to the south, via del casale Solaro to the west and via della Cecchignola to the east.The neighbouring parishes are: ss. Perpetua e Felicita, Ss. Annunziata, sant'Anselmo, san Giuseppe da Copertino.
The buildings were constructed between '75 and '85 by three consortia of cooperatives, Fonte meravigliosa, Solidarietà sociale, and Statistica 2000; they were part of the area plan No. 40, Vigna Murata, which provided for a little over three thousand flats, and commercial spaces. Schools were subsequently built: primary, middle and nursery schools; the municipal market and offices now occupied by INAIL.Since 1978, hundreds of families from other parts of the city and from central and southern regions, with different cultural and religious backgrounds, came to live in the neighbourhood.The average age of the heads of the families was around 45 years; 50 per cent belonged to the upper-middle class and the other half to the middle class.Around 1985, the flats were all inhabited.
In the beginning, the inhabitants officially belonged to the parish of Saint Perpetua and Felicita, which was quite far from the houses, but the presence of Father Francesco Di Domenico, who had moved here with his elderly parents, made it possible to fulfil the festive precept with a Eucharistic celebration held in an open space in the cellars, or at the chapel of the nuns of Saint Francesca Romana, and then to be hosted for a while in a glass room, granted by the Social Solidarity Consortium.The parish of St. Jeanne Antida Thouret was canonically erected on 1 June 1980, with the vicar decree “Le tireless attentions” by Cardinal Vicar Ugo Poletti, by virtue of the faculties granted to him by the Holy Father John Paul II.
His profound humanity and pastoral nature, also expressed in a programmatic report, outlined a communal and missionary path that the parish would have to undertake to overcome internal conflicts arising from different experiences and conceptions of the church. A socio-religious survey allowed us to acquire a deeper knowledge of the reality of the neighborhood (which in the meantime had reached completion, with about three thousand apartments), to formulate a pastoral plan that better met the needs of the inhabitants. Despite a relative economic well-being, the presence of what were already called the new poverty was found: uprooting of the elderly from their places of origin, disorientation of young people, families in crisis or already separated, boys and children in need of stable points of reference, loneliness, depression, anorexia. With much effort and some difficulty, the parish pastoral council was formed, the Caritas commission that had as its assistant Don Giovanni Ruffino, second assistant priest, the scouts of AGESCI, the neocatechumenal communities, Catholic Action, and finally the Franciscan Fraternity. Soon the assigned premises became insufficient: for the major religious holidays, creative solutions were resorted to: Christmas, Easter, the feast of the patron saint in May, were celebrated sometimes in a circus tent, sometimes in the theater of the elementary school in via Drago, or on the lawn adjacent to piazza Zamagna, which due to its hollow position facilitated choral and community participation. The community of the nuns of Saint Giovanna Antida also placed its home in via Cerva at the service of the elderly, the catechists, and some little girls who, guided by Sister Elvira, learned to knit or crochet in the summer. In his pastoral visit in May 1984, Cardinal Vicar Ugo Poletti, with remarkable foresight and fatherly love, realized the objective difficulties in which they were operating. In May 1986, invited to the feast of Saint Joan Antide, he was favorably surprised by the welcome he received. The outdoor celebration had a plebiscitary participation. Various posters and many tables documented the numerous activities carried out with texts, drawings, graphs, tables, photographs, while others were in progress. All of this demonstrated joy, passion, serious commitment in wanting to be a credible sign in the ecclesial community and in the neighborhood. Cardinal Poletti, in his loving concern, faced with the real difficulties of a neighborhood lacking essential services and structures, did not hesitate to give the use of commercial premises in Via Lorgna, owned by the diocesan fund for worship, for celebrations and catechesis. The assignment of these premises allowed Don Walter Boccioni, appointed parish priest in 1980, to better structure pastoral services, starting with ensuring the sacraments of Christian initiation, to which an initial response had already been given, thanks to the availability of Don Francesco and some volunteer catechists. In May 1982, during his pastoral visit, which lasted five full days, Monsignor Clemente Riva, then bishop of the Southern Sector, wanted to meet all the various realities, also reaching the teachers and students of the elementary and middle schools. In that meeting, he developed the desire to place the construction of the new parish complex among the diocesan pastoral priorities, overcoming some resistance from the Consortium of Fonte, in the delivery of the planned land that housed a football field with the related services. In fact, on July 28, the Cardinal had the Municipality of Rome deliver the area designated by the master plan for the construction of the church, had it fenced off, and subsequently had a prefabricated building installed there that would allow for new pastoral activities. On May 22, 1993, Cardinal Camillo Ruini consecrated and blessed the new church, exhorting all members of the people of God to be living stones, salt, light, leaven in the world, not allowing themselves to be tempted by forms of laziness or torpor on a spiritual and operational level. Under the altar table were placed relics of the patron saint, of Saint Philip Neri and of Saint Francesca Romana The joy was great, the church building was now the home of all par excellence. Of course, in the moment of joy we forget the efforts, the bitterness, the contrasts, the difficulties, the disappointments, the ingratitude suffered to reach this goal, just like the woman who, after giving birth, forgets the pain of labor.
An initial arrangement was found for the sports fields area. The maintenance of the external areas began to present some problems that absorbed resources and energy, as did the maintenance of the roof made of laminated wood. The parish complex, thanks to donations collected later, and carefully managed, was then enriched with other classrooms and halls, to allow for all pastoral and catechetical activities. The congregation of the nuns of s.G.A., in addition to substantial financial aid, donated the large painting dedicated to the Saint that is located in the corridor next to the parish office, the more modern bas-relief that was placed in the church, as well as the small portrait of the Saint near the pulpit. The large eighteenth-century crucifix placed in the apse was donated by the Vicariate. The stained glass windows with their symbolism are the work of the architect Annamaria Feci. On March 12, 1995, the long-awaited and welcome pastoral visit of the Holy Father John Paul II brought the community together a little more; they worked together, striving to overcome their affiliations to groups and movements. It was a moment of grace and full joy: the encouraging words of the Pontiff outlined the future path of the parish so that it would become more incisive, bold, credible, and communal in view of the mission. The previous year, the hall dedicated to him had been built, where he received the entire extended pastoral council, and where there is a portrait of him and a plaque in memory of the visit. On that occasion, he offered the parish a copy of the Madonna of Cestokova that had been donated to him by Solidarnosc, and which is now in the church. In the years 1997, 1998, and 1999, almost the entire parish was involved in the city mission. A considerable number of lay missionaries visited the families of the neighborhood, bringing them the good news and giving them a copy of the Gospel of Mark, and later the Acts of the Apostles. A very important event was the Jubilee of 2000; World Youth Day was celebrated for the occasion in Rome. The parish, due to its location near the terminus of the B metro line, hosted many Polish and South American pilgrims, and for the WYD about a hundred young people from Eastern Europe. Washrooms, showers, and portable toilets were set up, but many families were also involved in the hospitality. Increasingly numerous groups of young people from the parish participated in the various WYDs, starting from the one in Santiago de Compostela in 1989 to those in Toronto 2002, Cologne 2005, and Sydney 2008, in which the parish priest Don Walter Boccioni also participated. A little over a month after returning from the WYD in Australia, Don Walter, rather tired and exhausted (also due to a previous pilgrimage to Palestine), was struck by a serious stroke on August 28, 2008. The pain and dismay of the parishioners was great. At the funeral, concelebrated by numerous bishops, priests of the prefecture, and presided over by the Bishop of the Southern Sector, Monsignor Schiavon, the human and spiritual qualities of Don Walter were highlighted: his faithfulness and dedication to the Church, his great spirit of humility, his essentiality of life, his honesty as an administrator. The Cardinal Vicar Agostino Vallini shared the community's pain and in meeting the parish pastoral council urged them to intensify their commitment with a preferential focus on young people, families and the promotion of charity. At the end of the meeting he surprised everyone a bit because he introduced the new parish priest, Don Massimiliano Nazio, who had participated in the meeting anonymously.