Guatemala - A Christmas among the poorest: "This is the famous sanctity of the house next door"

27 December 2018

(ANS - San Benito Petén) - For many families, Christmas is undoubtedly the most loved and heartfelt feast, an opportunity to get together, eat together, play and exchange wishes and gifts.
This year, Fr Giampiero De Nardi, an Italian Salesian missionary active in San Benito Petén, Guatemala, wanted to share the experience of a different Christmas.

Fr Giampiero narrated the story of Roberto Ceriotti, a Brazilian dentist who spent the Christmas holidays in Petèn's mission. Here he carried out a professional voluntary service, helping and caring for many people who cannot pay for dental care. With him, his mother and sister also went to help him during this period.

It is the second year that Dr. Ceriotti has decided to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ among the poor of Petèn, taking care of many people who do not even know what a dentist is.

"This is the famous sanctity of the (house) next door. The holiness that makes one happy. The sanctity that changes the world. The holiness we all need in order not to close ourselves up in (our) small daily problems," said Fr Giampiero De Nardi.

Thinking of this generous dentist, who offers care to those who cannot afford it, a sentence come to Fr Giampiero's mind, pronounced by his friend Yan De Lucena, the one who introduced him to Roberto Ceriotti. "Of these madmen, in the world, we have so much need," Yan said during a Harambee.

"Roberto Ceriotti, in fact," says Fr Giampiero, "is part of these crazy people who know how to put oneself aside and worry about those who need it most. If only there were more of these people in the world! I feel really small in the presence of this very good person, so busy for the good of the people of San Benito," he continued.

The difficulties in San Benito are not lacking, but Fr Giampiero does not give up and continues, tirelessly, to work. "Perhaps because," he adds, "Petén makes us understand the profound meaning of life, the profound sense of things that Christmas should remind us of."

InfoANS

ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication, the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007.

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