"During a tribute to Fabrizio De André, attended by the big names in music, Dori Ghezzi reserved 250 seats for me, and I showed up at the theater with my outcasts.

Someone from the organization intended to send them to the upper balcony, confining them up there, under the pretext that there was no more space available. “Don’t worry,” I said, “I’ll take care of it.”

I stopped the traffic in the auditorium and, like a traffic cop, had them sit in the stalls, three here, two there, junkies, homeless, prostitutes next to notaries, ladies, and politicians. “No, not there,” they insisted. “That’s where the Minister of Culture, Giovanna Melandri, is going to sit.” “Then let’s put an old-time prostitute next to her; you’ll see how enriched she’ll be by the encounter!”

They were all very worried, asking me for guarantees about what would happen, and I kept them on edge by replying that I couldn’t know, since I was a priest, not a fortune-teller. But I knew very well what happened next: my marginalized were the ones who truly cried during the songs."

Don Andrea Gallo

Fabrizio De André - Amico fragile (Live)