In Busca, Piedmont, the local council is organizing a series of events, focusing on the themes of solidarity, acceptance and inclusion.
The aim is to create a stable network of collaboration between the local council, hospital and schools, which can continue to work with the younger generations on the theme of charity.
Among the events scheduled, on 16 February 2025, Contaminated Charity, a moment of discussion and in-depth analysis in the city theater on the value of charity in contemporary society, which was also attended by a group of Sisters of Charity, who served at the Civil Hospital, the Hospice, the orphanage and the kindergarten.
“We say to the sisters, welcome back to Busca, at least for a day!” said the president of the Civil Hospital, Tommaso Alfieri, presenting them with a plaque to thank them for their service to the Busca community.
Sister Jole sent us her testimony:
“God’s surprises are truly original.
An invitation arrived from Busca: February 16th, a day of celebration together for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Sisters of Charity. Intrigued, we found ourselves on time, at 9:00 am, in front of the Hospital: 5 sisters from the Turin Community and 2 from Vignolo.
The phenomenal welcome is expressed in: a visit to the hospital, which has been well renovated, to the retirement home, to the most characteristic places in Busca, it becomes prayer in the carefully prepared Eucharistic celebration, then it becomes conviviality at lunch and flows into a splendid cultural overview: an exhibition entitled “Art and Charity” and a meeting at the Civic Theatre on “Contaminated Charity”. In the evening, we left the event strongly “contaminated” by the experiences of charity we had heard about, and with a plaque commemorating the presence of our sisters in Busca, more as a wish than as a memory.
Three of us who were present: Sister Carlamaria Vivalda, Sister Maria Guasco (as Councilor) and I, Sister Jole, as provincial, serving in the 80s and 90s, are directly involved. In fact, the Communities that had been opened over time, after the initial Hospital and Hospice community in 1874, were closed in those years: the Orphanage in 1983, the Nursery School in 1995, the last “multi-purpose” one, which seems to also conclude the hospital one, on January 25, 2000. We don’t feel guilty, however, because throughout history changes in life generate life, they make new things flourish. Are the nuns missing? Here we are, now, among wonderful volunteers in every sector, shoots of life, a point of reference for young people, artists of charity who continue to create “Culture”.
In fact, a joyful realization makes us increasingly emphasize how everything that is beautiful, great, good becomes “art of culture” and if, it moves in the breath of the Spirit, it acquires the stamp of “divine culture”.
Today, we took a dip in both, also breathing in the rich and affectionate memory of many of our sisters, how the “past” of the 125 years of their presence in Busca has become “present” in the 150 years since their arrival, and is well projected into a fruitful “future”. A future that, in the richness of its charism, knows how to embrace, like the nuns of the past but with today’s nuances: schools, the sick, the elderly, those in need, and in its openness and universal solidarity, it knows how to repeat that we are all brothers and sisters of the same humanity.
A big thank you to all the Organizers, to all the Operators, to all the Buschesi, it really suits us”.
Sister . Jole Stradoni
