His childhood and adolescence had been marked by episodes of violence and bullying. He ended up in a Caserta family home due to dropping out of school. The experience was not the best and he escaped after six months. The return to Naples, the precipitation of the situation and after a year a complaint for domestic violence caused him to fall into the abyss again. It was 2018 and he was 17. “The carabinieri came in the evening and arrested me. They took me to the first reception centre that is normally located in the Aminei Hills, but the ‘Don Bosco’ centre was also equipped and I stopped there,"says Luca.
This time the punishment presented itself as Providence: it had the face of the sons of St John Bosco at the Doganella. It is thanks to them that the climb began once more. In the first days of detention, the young man was often visited by his parish priest: Fr Valentino De Angelis from Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Naples, a community where the boy was an altar server. He stayed with the Salesians along with seven other minors for a year and a half, until the outbreak of the pandemic.
He experienced Don Bosco "not as a family home, but as‘ my home ’". Many relationships occurred over those months. Those with the staff were indissoluble. “It's like she's my second mum. When I say that I go to ‘Don Bosco‘ at home, I do not say that I go to the community, but that I go to Cristina (one of the workers there, Ed.). I visited three communities, but the Salesians had something different."
For Luca, the difference lies "in humanity. Their work focuses on attention to the human side to create a bond. We were not users, we were people.” At that time he resumed his high school studies: "I took a cooking/dining room course; they also offered mechanics and logistics, but I wanted to graduate. Thanks to their help in my study, I gained a certificate as chemical expert ."
With Covid-19 he was allowed to return home. "I would have liked to stay at the centre until I was 21, but given the pandemic they let me back into the family. It was not a good time," he confides. There was also depression and the difficulty in relating to others. He felt the need to return to "Don Bosco". Providence saw that the idea of civil service be floated. There were places at the Salesians and Luca applied. He passed the tests and for a year he stood on the other side of the barricade. He was with difficult children, which he had been only a few years before. "We helped during the games and after school, in the afternoon activities in the oratory I also coached a football team," he says.
At the end of the year of civil service he was with Fr Fabio Bellino, Rector of the Salesians in Naples, and twenty other social workers at San Tarcisio in Rome. "It was the most significant experience. Fr Fabio told us: ‘You had this opportunity, but do not stop because it can be difficult to start again’. There I made the choice to enrol in the University so that what I had experienced first hand would not been in vain."
Since last September he has been enrolled in Political Science at Federico II in Naples. The path was a bit uphill "But I'm trying to fit into some student groups to find a new dimension. I have to insist and I will insist.” For his future he wants "a quiet life, a good salary and a family". And if someone asks him how his adolescence was, he replies: "Well, because, when I think of "Don Bosco" I only have beautiful memories, they gave me joy and hope. Elsewhere they stole my time, but there they gave me back my life."
"Don Bosco" in Naples is a dynamic place open to the territory and operates through the parish, the oratory, territorial educational services, residential services, the community for foreign minors, the accommodation community, the reception centre, vocational training.
Source: Insieme News
