Tell me something about your family: your parents, brothers and sisters, what they are doing, practice of religion, etc.

My Dad is called Carlo and is now 87 years old. He is originally from a small village near Alessandria (Castellazzo Bormida, not too far from Mornese, which is in South Eastern Piedmont). Before he was born, his family moved to the neighbourhood of Biella (in North Eastern Piedmont), where he was born and then to Lessona (again near Biella), the village of my Mom. She is called Maria Grazia and is 75 years old.  As they got married in 1959, my Dad kept looking for a job and finally found a stable one at Castelnuovo Don Bosco. They moved there in 1961, therefore both my brother and I were born and brought up at Castelnuovo.  My Dad is an oenologist by profession and he was the production manager of the local cooperative for the production of wine for more than 25 years.  I have only one brother, Mario, who is now 43 years old, married to Barbara, They have a daughter called Anna, who is 3 and a half years old.  Dad and Mom are retired and enjoy relatively good health. They are kept busy by little Anna, who runs up and down their house when her Mom is at work.  Mario is a bookbinder and is employed as a teacher at Colle Don Bosco, where there is a technical school run by the Salesians. He has been several times at Makuyu for a month, helping in the printing press there; once or twice at Iringa and once also at Akure (Nigeria), always in the bookbinding section of the printing press. My Mom is a Co-operator and the secretary of the local unit at Castelnuovo.  My brother has always been active in the parish, which is also entrusted to the Salesians. In his younger years, he was helping a soccer team of adolescents as a trainer. When he got married, he had toretirefrom that, but he still tries his best to be of help. Both my brother and I are past-pupils of the upper primary school that used to be there at Colle Don Bosco.

How did you receive the call to be a Salesian?
I would say that mine is still a vocation that came up like in the days of old. These days, as far as I know, is not happening any longer.  I went to the Salesian school at Colle Don Bosco when I was 11. There I found myself for the first time in the midst of so many interesting companions and a good number of young Salesians (Practical Trainees and young perpetually professed confreres). I was conquered by the family atmosphere there. So when the Rector (who would receive all the pupils quite often, especially those of the last year) asked me whether I had ever thought of “staying with Don Bosco”, on the spot I answered the truth and said “No”, but then my mind and my heart kept going back to that question and in the end I said, “Yes! Why not?”  So the journey began. I went to Ivrea for the first two years of my secondary school (ginnasio, the beginning of classical high school in those days) and from there I joined the Aspirantate at Rebaudengo (Turin), while finishing my studies at Valsalice Classical High School, the one that Don Bosco accepted to help Archbishop Gastaldi. During the three years I spent at Rebaudengo, my motivations deepened.  In September 1982 I joined the Novitiate at Monte Oliveto, Pinerolo (Turin). The rest is history.

You come from Castelnuovo, the place of Don Bosco, how does this affect your life as Salesian?
The main way in which coming from Castelnuovo affects my life as a Salesian – as I mentioned in my previous answer – is that, because of this very fact, I met the Salesians early on in my life. I went to a Salesian school and there Ifell in lovewith the Salesian way. I see this as providential: the Lord knew that – in order to catchme –he had to do so when I was still very young and… so he did!
I also somehow enjoy the expression of wonder and almost disbelief I see on the face of many confreres whom I meet for the first time, when I tell them where I come from!
On a more serious note, I realise that this new obedience that has been asked of me will give me a chance to be even more deeply a fellow country-man of St John Bosco, since the Provincial is supposed to be Don Bosco, especially for the Salesians and the members of the Salesian Family living in the territory of the Province.

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