Don Domenico Pezzini e il Guado

Riflessioni di Gianni Geraci del Guado di Milano

Il 19 Novembre 2021 è morto don Domenico Pezzini, il sacerdote della diocesi di Lodi che, il 20 dicembre 1980, aveva fondato il Gruppo del Guado e che, negli anni successivi, ha contribuito alla nascita di molti gruppi di omosessuali credenti in tutta Italia. Grazie all’indipendenza economica a cui era approdato diventando docente di Letteratura inglese, don Domenico, dalla seconda metà degli anni Novanta, è stato uno dei pochissimi preti che ha detto a voce alta che l’atteggiamento della Chiesa nei confronti delle persone omosessuali doveva cambiare. Nel 2010 una vicenda giudiziaria che l’ha visto sul banco degli imputati per un caso di abuso su minore ha bloccato la sua attività e ha aperto un dibattito molto serrato tra gli omosessuali credenti italiani, sull’atteggiamento da tenere nei suoi confronti. Abbiamo chiesto al nostro portavoce di ricostruire la storia dei rapporti tra don Domenico e il Guado nell’articolo che vi proponiamo.

When, in the nineties, I became president of the Guado, Don Domenico no longer participated in the group's activities, he had in fact left him in 1986 and had founded the source, a "competitor" group that in those years, thanks also to his charismatic personality, had a great success. Among other things, the ford was going through a moment of difficulty, after Don Goffredo Crema, had decided to devote himself entirely to the group he had founded in Cremona, the city where he resided.
It was some old members of the ford who suggested that they contact Don Domenico and, pushed more by the need for anything else, I decided to follow their suggestion and phoned him.
He invited me to his apartment in viale Padova, he was very kind even if he told me very clearly that he no longer had any intention of dealing with a group like the ford that, in his way of seeing, was too dispersive. On the other hand, he spoke to me very well of the source and invited me to participate in a retreat that would be held a few weeks later in Torrazzetta, in the province of Pavia. I accepted his invitation and, during the retreat, I understood three things:

• that Don Pezzini was really charismatic, both as a preacher and as a writer (several years later, after having finished his book, I sent him a message in which he was written: "They should call you" Domenico Crisographer "");
• that the activities he organized, both during the meetings of the source and during the retreats to Torrazzetta, were engaging and beautiful and that this explained the great success they had;
• that my place was in the Ford, where the poverty of human resources made any new contribution particularly precious.

Ho quindi declinato il suo invito, non ho più frequentato La Fonte e ho continuato a invitarlo al Guado nella speranza che, prima o poi, dicesse di sì e finalmente, nel 1998, in occasione dell’uscita di un libro in cui raccoglieva le storie di una trentina di omosessuali credenti [1] è venuto al Guado per presentarlo. Da allora l’abbiamo invitato spesso come relatore, anche perché aveva iniziato a pubblicare parecchi libri ed era diventato, nell’ambito dell’editoria religiosa uno di quegli autori di successo a cui le librerie dedicavano un piccolo spazio tra i loro scaffali. Il fatto è che don Domenico aveva la capacità di stimolare nel lettore l’ascolto attento e profondo degli spunti da cui partiva: che si trattasse di testi della Scrittura (ha pubblicato commenti ai testi biblici con diverse case editrici) [2]; che si trattasse di testi letterari [3]; che si trattasse di immagini proposti dalle arti figurative [4]; che si trattasse, infine di musica [5]; che si trattasse, infine, dei testi dei mistici medioevali di cui era diventato un esperto riconosciuto a livello internazionale [6]. Si può dire che, da questi autori, abbia imparato quella che potremmo definire come la spiritualità del bello scrivere, così tanto ben descritta da Jean Leclercq, quando osserva che la cura della forma scritta, nella mistica medievale, è un aspetto non secondario dell’esperienza spirituale dell’autore e del lettore [7].

Not all the meetings that, since then he had with the ford have been a success. For example, I still remember the phone call with which he had reached me in 2003, when I was in Catania at a meeting of the coordination of the groups of Christian homosexuals in Italy of which, in the meantime, I had become a spokesman: in essence he reproached me for having invited him to the ford and not having personally moderated the meeting and communicated me that he, at the ford, of conferences he would no longer have kept. Two weeks later I learned that, during the presentation of the book: the risen body. Between art and theology someone had interrupted by asking him what he thought of the attitude of the Catholic Church towards homosexual unions (they were the times when, one day yes and another as well, some bishop said that a law on unions between people of the same sex did not have to be done). It is true that it was not a question that concerned the contents of the book. It was also true that, in a group of believing homosexuals, such a question must always be expected.

Fortunately, he thought about it and, after some time, he accepted our invitations again until, at the beginning of 2010, when he came to talk to us about the travels that, in collaboration with the Fathers of the Pime, had started doing in Bangladesh. It was during the dinner that, as always, there was after that meeting, that Don Domenico told me that he believed his activity as a spiritual writer certainly more important than the one he had carried out since 1980, founding many groups of believing homosexuals. I had a confirmation in this sense a few weeks later, when I heard his voice on Radio Maria during a conference in which he talked about the medieval mysticism and, in particular of Giuliana di Norwich.

"It is now too important to accept our invitations!" - I said to myself - and I sent him a message in which I congratulated him for the new audiences to which he had the opportunity to speak.
I never thought that, a few days later, everything would change suddenly with his arrest first and then with his sentence.

I do not go into the merits of the judicial events of Don Domenico. I only say, for those who do not know it, he was accused of abusing a minor originally from Bangladesh, who had made it welcomed by a specialized structure that operates in Milan and who had then continued to attend. I don't know the truth about this story. I know that the Don Domenico I met I had never seemed to be an ogre capable of seducing and abusing a fourteen -year -old boy, but I also know that the procedural truth says the opposite and, as a person who learned to accept the judgments of the judges, even with great suffering, together with the other members of the ford, I took note of the fact that there is a victim who must be expressed solidarity and that there is a guilty guilty. The ford, to the story of the arrest and the process of Don Domenico, dedicated some meetings. We confronted each other on what was the right attitude to keep against this story and, after reflecting, discussed and prayed, we came to these conclusions:

• don Domenico always remains the priest who founded the ford and who, after the ford he founded many other groups of believing homosexuals: from the source in Milan, to the group on the way to Bologna, to the La Sorgente group in Rome, to the La Crete di Bergamo group, to the Group Il Mosaico di Brescia, to the Emmanuele group in Padua;
• it would be from cowardly denying or diminishing the importance of his work in the birth and maturation of our groups (just think of the articles and books that he dedicated to the relationship between faith and homosexuality) [8];
• despite the tormented relationships that the ford with Don Pezzini, it is sure that the reasons for gratitude towards him are much stronger than the reasons for complaints that have arisen by some misunderstandings that have been there;
• in the Gospel it is written to "visit the prisoners" and there is no written "visiting the innocent prisoners". This prompted us to write to Don Domenico to tell him that, especially in a moment of difficulty like what he was going through, we were close to him and not "unloaded" him, as they were doing others (like some collaborators of Radio Maria who speculated on his story to attack the pastoral accompaniment work with homosexual people who had been carrying out for years).

We do not know if Don Domenico appreciated the letter we sent to him to tell him these reflections. We don't know because he never answered us. However, we did not change the line and we immediately said: "When all this story is over, we will invite him again" and we thought we had it with us on the occasion of the thirtieth birthday of our group. We would never have thought in those months of 2010, that there would be a definitive sentence of ten years in prison. Through some friend, we learned of the dignity with which he faced the experience of imprisonment, a dignity that emerged from the writings he sent to some people with whom he kept the contacts and that some friends spinned us.

Ten years later, when he was released, overcoming his reluctance as always, we managed to have it with us during the webinar in which we celebrated, in full Lockdown, the fortieth birthday of the ford. Even on that occasion he did not appreciate the way the meeting was organized. I tried to explain to him the reasons behind our choices, but I also thought that, for which we had made certain choices and I thought that, probably, his relationships with the ford would be always problematic.

It does nothing, especially now that he is no longer there. Because in conscience we can say, proudly, that we have always tried to have never been there to the many who have torn their clothes in front of a crime as gruesome as the one that saw him first accused and then condemned and who accused us of having "covered a pedophile", of having assumed "a pilate attitude", of having even been "accomplices of an ogre". In making our choices, we have simply tried to follow the Gospel, who says to always distinguish the person from the things that this person is responsible and therefore, while respecting the decisions of the judges, we cannot deny the good that Don Domenico has made to many believing homosexuals.

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[1] See at the gates of Zion. Voices of believing homosexuals, Monti 1998;
[2] See the seasons of faith. Texts commented for the liturgical year, Paoline 1996; The Sunday Gospel. Reflection and prayer, EDB 1995/1996/1997; In the meantime. Incursions in the liturgical year (advent, Christmas, ordinary time), still 2001; The redeemed time. Incursions in the liturgical year (Lent-Pasqua), still 2002; The road and the canteen. The disciple in the Gospel of Luca, Paoline 2006; Reconciliation time. Lent-Pasqua, Emi 2009; Listening and plea. Meditations on Lodi and Vespri, Paoline 2009.
[3] See the water and the rose. Small grammar of relationship life, Ambrosian Center 2005; RS Thomas. A country, a people, a faith, quiedit 2005; Ruscelli meeting the sun. Paths of (car) exploration on the traces of the poet Guillevic, servitium 2012.
[4] See the Risen Body. Between art and theology, still 2000; Jacob and the angel. The mystery of the relationship, still 2003;
[5] See Cantati Domino, still 2003.
[6] See Pezzini D., The light on the cross. The spirituality of the passion in Giuliana of Norwich, Paoline 1997; Giuliana di Norwich, book of revelations, still 1997; Aelredo di Rievaulx, the spiritual friendship, Paoline 1998; Aelredo di Rievaulx, The mirror of Charity, Paoline 1999; Aelredo di Rievaulx, twelve -year -old Jesus. Pastoral prayer, Paoline 2001; Aelredo di Rievaulx, Rule of the imprisonments, Paoline 2003; Isaac of the star, Sermoni, Paoline 2006/2007; Aelredo di Rievaulx, a shepherd's prayer. And other prayers, Paoline 2010; Bernardo di Chiaravalle, sermons on the liturgical year, new city 2021; Pezzini D., Faith, reason and feeling. The spirituality of Isaac of the star, Lindau, 2021
[7] See Leclercq J., Humanistic culture and desire of God. Study on the monastic literature of the Middle Ages, Sansoni 2002.
[8] See at the gates of Sion. Voices of believing homosexuals, Monti 1998; The hands of the potter. A homosexual son: what to do?, Still 2004.