Chiesa di San Giovanni Crisostomo

Telling the story of a place can be a simple undertaking. One lists the highlights, one makes a list of the main milestones, those that have marked the most important moments. Telling the story in this way is very simple. And also very reductive. Because in this way one loses the soul, the meaning, the motives that determined the events of that story to happen exactly as they did.To tell the story of a place is to tell the story of the people who lived in that place and who contributed, piece by piece, piece by piece, to compose the overall picture that determined history.Procession through the neighbourhood in the 1960sIf we tell the facts, the story of St John Chrysostom begins in a garage: in 1960, the vicarage of the parish of the Holy Guardian Angels was established: just a chapel, dedicated to St John Chrysostom, in a garage in Via Isola Bella 32, blessed on 17 September 1960 by Cardinal Luigi Traglia.If we recount the facts, however, we leave out the essentials.Rather, we should start by recounting a Rome that no longer exists, a generation of people with a difficult past and at the same time with great faith in the future. People - young couples above all - who from the Coppedé district, from the Salario, from Piazza Bologna stretching along the Nomentana, moving away to stay close, went to live on the outskirts of the city.
2 May 1964: at 5 p.m. Cardinal Luigi Traglia solemnly inaugurates the parish sports fields2 May 1964: at 5 p.m. Cardinal Luigi Traglia solemnly inaugurates the parish sports fieldsDecree Quo aptius, by which the parish of St. John Chrysostom is established
The real story therefore begins with the dreams of those people, their hopes and above all their ability to put them into practice. The houses, the streets, the first shops and together, but perhaps before all else, the place where they could gather, where they could feel a community, where they could celebrate rituals, sanctify feasts, baptise their children. And it was those dreams, and the will to realise them, that made the transition from vicarage to parish in the four years from 1960 to 1964: on 15 January 1964, Cardinal Vicar Clemente Micara promulgated the decree Quo aptius, by which the parish of St John Chrysostom was established.The neighbourhood is young, full of children: they need spaces for them to play, places where they can grow, and so, as soon as the parish was established, an oratory and sports fields were built.A few more years go by and finally the construction of the Church begins; during the ceremony of laying the foundation stone, Cardinal Dell'Acqua makes the following wish to the community: Forget the long years of sacrifices spent in a humble garage...you will have here, shortly, your new Parish Church, worthy, dwelling place of the Lord.Work on the church went ahead quickly and in a short time the building was finished: on 16 February 1969 the new building was consecrated.But the building for worship is not enough. And why stop there? Why not think of a place where children can be educated, where they can grow up. Another five years and there is the school.All this was born and developed with a priest who came from afar. A wise and pragmatic Venetian, accustomed to working hard: the ideal person not to disperse, indeed to enhance those drives, that will to build that animates his parishioners. With Don Severino the feeling is perfect, thanks to those alchemies that are born and develop on the basis of common ideals.And what could be better than an official visit to sanction the realisation of the dream? The presence among our streets, among our places, of the Pope, to whom the school was dedicated.That certainly is an important milestone. A fact that on re-reading it has many meanings. It is the consecration of the path realised, its culmination and at the same time the end of the pioneering era, of the age where everything is possible. That group of young dreamers has become a community, many are now parents, they have new responsibilities, they have become adults. The seventies arrived, the first economic crisis and in those strange Sundays of austerity, people began to ride bicycles in the streets of the neighbourhood. These were difficult years, of ideological clashes, of political struggles, even the neighbourhood experienced them with a new restlessness. The community, however, is strong, it is united, the parish is a point of reference, a place to find each other. Groups are born and develop, of youth, of adults, linked to prayer, to charity.Young vice-parish priests animate youth groups, linked to the sacraments, school, liturgy. And the community becomes the place to cultivate big dreams. While other young people in the streets of the neighbourhood dream of changing the world, unfortunately sometimes by violent means, Fr Nazareno first and Fr Giuseppe later come to spend their lives to change the world for real. And if the price to pay is to leave everything and fly to the other side of the world, they do not back down.Talenti is the name of the neighbourhood where our parish is located, and the two of them certainly do not put their talents in the ground. They put them to use, they invest them to help the least, to go and build other communities, to help other people realise their dreams. They maintain a bond with our parish that will never diminish, because they are part of St John Chrysostom and this remains their home.So we arrive at the 1980s. The neighbourhood is no longer a suburb, there are no more white streets, the community is now consolidated. In our school, the Augustinian Sisters leave and the Franciscan Sisters arrive. In the sign of continuity, with the same love for the children, the same passion for teaching, the same enthusiasm for transmitting faith and love for God and others.We also have a foreign priest, the Lebanese Fr Marone, who joins our pastors, and in this St John Chrysostom becomes the vanguard of that openness to the world that will be a hallmark of later years, thanks also to the two titular Cardinals. As early as 1969, in fact, the parish became a Cardinal seat, with the Title of St John Chrysostom at Monte Sacro Alto: the titular was first Cardinal Vicente Enrique y Tarancon, Archbishop of Madrid, and then, in 2001, Cardinal Bernard Agré, Archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast.In the meantime, new groups, new initiatives are born: the Scouts of Europe become a constant presence, important not only from a numerical point of view in the life of the community, replacing that of other Scout groups, previously present more sporadically. Don Remo first, Don Emilio later strengthen the link between our community and the Veneto region, which becomes a real twinning, if we think that even many of the Franciscan Sisters of the school come from that region.So we arrive at the beginning of a new decade, which could not have opened better: we again have the honour and privilege of having the Vicar of Christ in our midst: on 25 March 1990, Pope John Paul II visits our parish.In 1993 a real earthquake opened a new page in our history. The Vicariate decides that parish priest appointments are no longer unlimited in time, but have a fixed term of nine years. At the same time, a young parish priest, Don Paolo Tammi, arrives here. A radical change that in a short time led to the birth of many new initiatives and, above all, to the reconnection of many young people to the community. Those young people, who find in the new parish priest and in the even younger deputy, Don Gianni, interlocutors closer to them and to their needs.It was precisely in those years that the community first hosted the Mission of the seminarians, who came to live in the families of the parish for a fortnight, launching initiatives that continue to this day. It was from there that the Listening Centres were born and developed: small groups for prayer and meditation on the word, which were organised in various apartment blocks in the community. After having strengthened the community and attracted even those furthest away, the parish entered the condominiums and homes of the neighbourhood, concretely realising that unity of purpose that had always animated it, from its earliest years.New activities of a cultural nature are born: the film club, the newspaper, days of in-depth study of social issues, with experts and high-level personalities. The parish is no longer merely the place where the sacraments are celebrated, but truly an all-round meeting place for everyone. The oratory and sports activities also regain new impetus, attracting young people who, for various reasons, had drifted away from the parish world.The young people are then protagonists, together with the two priests, of twinning with some parishes in the north and south of Italy, leading to a dialogue and exchange with other young people, from other realities, far away and at the same time united by the same values.Also from an aesthetic point of view, the renewal is visible with the new stained glass windows that adorn our Church, first at the sides of the altar and then along both aisles.A parish synod was organised, a three-day in-depth discussion, with the active participation of all parts of the parish and the representation of all groups.St John Chrysostom enters the new millennium with an openness to the world: in addition to the normal retreats, pilgrimages abroad are organised, to the Holy Land and then to Poland, to the places of Pope Wojtila and Don Roman, a Polish priest who was a guest of our parish for several years, devoting himself in particular to the children of the Paul VI School and First Communion.The pilgrimages will become an important appointment for all the following years.After nine years, the arrival of Don Gino Amicarelli finds a well-organised parish with many initiatives and active groups. The newcomer, together with vice-parish priest Fr Giorgio, continues in the line of the previous years. A new Mission of the Seminarians is organised, continuity is given to some convivial appointments already organised in the past and much appreciated by the community, such as the feast of St John Chrysostom (which in some editions comes to bring together for dinner in the courtyard, almost 500 people in a single night) and the Paul VI School feast. The beautification of the church was completed with the large stained-glass window above the entrance. Major renovations are carried out on the sports fields and the School building, making them more functional and suited to the needs of the children who attend them.In place of Don Giorgio comes Don Giuseppe as vice-parish priest, who is particularly committed to the young people, creating a rich youth community structured in different groups. Flanking the two is Don Edgar, a Peruvian priest, almost as if to sanction the bond that, thanks to the Mato Grosso Group, has always been very strong between our Community and those faraway lands of South America.Before the end of his term of office, Fr Gino was called to fill another important post in the diocese, and so Fr Paolo Selvadagi was appointed in his place, but he would remain in our parish for only three years, also projected towards a prestigious post, which would lead him to become bishop of a sector of the diocese of Rome.Also from Latin America, in place of Don Giuseppe, Don Gerardo is appointed vice-parish priest, who will continue his work in favour of young people.And so we come to the present day, to the arrival of Fr Massimo Tellan, which marks a new period of change and reorganisation.Many parish activities are renewed, there are many changes, well exemplified by the new look of the church interior, which is enriched with new sacred images.As we said at the beginning, telling the story of a place, of a community, can be simple and at the same time very complex. A story that has a very strong line of continuity and at the same time evident changes, the result of the change of the people who have led this community and of those who have joined them in this task. Each one of them has built a piece of it, small or big it doesn't matter, however important to define the overall picture of this story.Daniel Pennac says that men build houses because they must live and write books because they know they must die. In these fifty years we have built something bigger than a house to live in and we have written a story more important than a book to read. A story that certainly does not end with this anniversary. St John Chrysostom, from high in the heavens watches over us and is probably curious, as we are, to live the next fifty years, with the old and new protagonists who will carry it forward, writing the chapters of the future.