Words that, for those who have had the good fortune to cross his path, summarise the life of Fr Domenico Ricca - known as Don Meco - a Salesian and chaplain for 40 years at Turin's ‘Ferrante Aporti’ juvenile penitentiary institute, which, at the time of Don Bosco's ‘La Generala’, was the reformatory where the saint spent many afternoons with the ‘rambunctious and dangerous’ boys of the time. And it was behind those bars that Don Bosco invented his Preventive System and the oratories: that is why the chaplains of ‘Ferrante’ have been Salesians ever since.
In memory of Fr Ricca, who died on 2 March last at the age of 77, the Forum of the Third Sector in Piedmont (of which he was one of the founders) and the Salesians of the Special Circumscription of Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta (ICP) are promoting the first edition of the ‘Meco’ Literary Prize aimed at young people and adults (19 years and over) and adolescents (14-18 years). A special section is reserved for young people confined at the ‘Ferrante Aporti’ to whom Don Meco dedicated his life as a priest and chaplain, a service now passionately continued by his confrere Fr Silvano Oni.
The theme chosen for the competition, supported by numerous organisations and associations with which Fr Ricca collaborated, is ‘Behind Bars’, understood as detention in the physical, psychological and social sense. Participants are invited to share, through writing, reflections, real or imagined experiences related to the theme, ‘highlighting both the difficulties and the potential for rebirth’.
Entries (short essay, poem or short story) must be submitted by 31 March and the finalists will be announced on 5 May. The prize-giving ceremony will be held at the Turin Book Fair (15-19 May), where a publication of the best entries will be presented. The jury will include writers - including Margherita Oggero and Younis Tawfik - juvenile judge Ennio Tomaselli, Claudio Sarzotti, sociology lecturer and director of the magazine Antigone, and education and social science experts.
More information on the competition is available on the website.
Source: La Voce e il Tempo
