A book to pay homage to Don Mario Carrera
The Pious Union of the Transit of Saint Joseph has dedicated this book to the memory of Don Mario Carrera (1935-2025) as an expression of its gratitude. At the end of a life dedicated to God in the Opera Don Guanella, between 2005 and 2021, Don Mario dedicated himself to the Pious Union at the Basilica of Saint Joseph al Trionfale in Rome. In this last activity, he put to good use his personal passion for communication, as well as his experience in this field, and especially supported the magazine La Santa Crociata in onore di San Giuseppe , the association's monthly publication.
The first part of the book collects six testimonies about Don Mario. The section opens with a homily by the Superior General of the Servants of Charity, Don Umberto Brugnoni, delivered in Canegrate, Don Mario's hometown, during his funeral; this is followed by two writings by his collaborator, Don Gabriele Cantaluppi, and Don Mario's successor as director of the Pious Union, Don Bruno Capparoni. These pages are followed by a moving remembrance by Vito Viganò, a lifelong friend of Don Mario, and two testimonies by Andrea Fagioli, a professional journalist and former editor of the weekly Toscana Oggi , and Michele Gatta, an editorial collaborator of the Guanellian magazines La Santa Crociata and Servire.
The second part presents eighteen letters by Don Mario, published in the Guanellian periodical Servire between 1984 and 1998, so as to recall his thoughts in his own words. The quarterly Servire was used because his Confidenziali , which appeared in La Santa Crociata in 2015, had already been collected and published in a book , Costruire la speranza.
Don Mario was called to edit the quarterly Servire in 1984, when the magazine was ten years old, having been founded in April 1974, and needed a comprehensive overhaul. The column in which these texts by Don Mario appeared was titled "Letter to a Friend ," where he wrote to imaginary correspondents, men and women, most often young, with affectionate friendship, in his personal style, much appreciated by those who knew him.
The themes addressed in the letters are those most congenial to him, such as hope, the true values to which one should dedicate one's life, silence and interiority, and charity towards the poor according to the teachings of Don Guanella. These pages brim with pedagogical attention, especially those addressed to a young reader. The writing style is also unmistakably Don Carrera's, rich with images that multiply almost infinitely, juxtaposed in unexpected ways, to suggest insights and, more often, unexpected emotions.
Reading Don Mario Carrera's pages will bring us back to encountering him, as we did during the years he spent among us, in personal conversations and telephone conversations. Rereading it (a little at a time each day, "chewing" on his ideas and words), his familiar image will come to mind, and a feeling of gratitude and prayer will arise. The book is dedicated to the Associates of the Pious Union of the Transit of Saint Joseph.