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Rating: In recent weeks, the site has published - in the "Literary Cases" section - a dialogue between the writer and a clergyman about Don Luigi Verzé (1920-2011), a prelate of Veronese origin who, over the past decades, distinguished himself for his entrepreneurial activity in the healthcare and scientific research sectors, founding the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan and all its related structures.
Some of my most trusted readers - who are part of the site's "silent majority," those who prefer to read and meditate before commenting publicly - were surprised by the placement of the latest essay, quietly contesting its low visibility: I reassure them, without complaining about suspected censorship, or worse, the use of the a-democratic technique of promoveatur ut removeatur, acknowledging that the writing required a less exposed space than what is usually reserved for my essays.
I must also admit that the Editorial Staff's choice made me reflect on the need to give Don Verzé's figure more space, using the dry, journalistic style that animated my early writings for Debaser and which, with this necessary preamble complete, I intend to use as a tribute to one of my reference points, Giorgio Bocca, who passed away in the same days as Don Verzé.
In the last years of his life, before seeing his organization at the center of criminal investigations for suspected acts of corruption and other related crimes, Don Luigi Verzé published this extensive and in-depth book (Mondadori, 2004), which synthesizes his apostolate, work, mission.
A widely discussed figure in life and death, Don Luigi Verzé was a singular icon of a priest, perfectly immersed in the Italian reality from the '50s until his death: he did so from the perspective of a man of faith and a clergyman who is not content with mere religious apostolate; like men such as Don Milani, Don Giuseppe Dossetti, Don Ciotti, Don Baget Bozzo, Don Gelmini, Don Gallo, and others, he is not content to "speak" as a shepherd of souls but "acts" in the world as a true shepherd, seeking and caring for his flock.
Verzé's flock was the Milan of the '50s, and the chosen pasture was that of health, the care of bodies as a prerequisite for the care of souls themselves: hence the need to create a hospital structure that would treat, in the country's "moral capital," anyone in need; the related need to develop scientific research alongside the care of bodies, with a radical choice not always shared by the clergy, where Verzé's apostolate followed the Galilean example, separating the book of the world from that of Faith; in the last years, that of transcending pure medical research through the creation of a philosophical studium where some of the greatest intellectuals of our times, not necessarily Catholic, could freely cultivate their speculative arts.
Don Verzé was not alone in this work: at times isolated in the Curia environments, which were physiologically resistant to accepting some new methods and merits imposed by the Veronese prelate, he found support among some representatives of the Milanese and Lombard bourgeoisie, as well as politicians from opposing ideologies, but united by a similar "humanism": the most known - but it is good to remember: not the only - representatives of this social milieu were Benedetto Craxi and Silvio Berlusconi, who first gave credit to the priest's visions, melding religious message, religious pragmatism, with political and entrepreneurial pragmatism.
The link with discussed entrepreneurs and politicians, but who in some respects marked an era and an entire country, also explains the ambivalent judgments about Don Verzé's figure: there are those who have given an extremely negative image of him, also in light of the criminal investigations ongoing before the prelate's death, essentially likening his figure to that of a merchant surreptitiously introduced into the temple, along with companions of dubious morals and integrity; others, while not denying the use of ambiguous methods by the prelate (who in this world, with all its imperfections, operated), leave any judgment about his figure suspended, considering the great results obtained by the San Raffaele, both as a hospital center and as a scientific and philosophical one.
The book reviewed here has an autobiographical character, in certain respects apologetic, which certainly does not fully help to bring Verzé's figure into focus; written precisely, tastefully, passionately, it represents a human and religious story that no one can consider irrelevant, upon which only History, or Judgment (for those who believe) can pronounce.
Certainly, this text helps to place Don Verzé's figure in the dimension of a just, necessary complexity, broadening the horizon where his star rose, reached its zenith, and then slowly declined, as has often happened to both great and small figures in history.
It is foreseeable, as already seen in the background of the previous philosophical dialogue, that the majority will hurl unrepeatable and unspeakable judgments at Don Verzé, casting their stone against him; however, I trust that the minority more attentive to my writings or "literary cases" will grasp, in Don Verzé's parabola, the very essence of the human story, appreciating its bright light, often close to the darkest shadow.
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