WHO WAS the most important person in your religious formation?
There were two priests. The first was Fr. Luigi, whom I met as a child. I was one of his ‘helpers’ in his pastoral work in favour of the poor. I was always asking myself where he drew the strength to work tirelessly for the marginalised.
The second great influence on me was Fr. Piero. I met him when I was about 20, and with him I visited many refugee centres, especially for the people who were made homeless by earthquakes in Italy. I also accompanied him to Africa to various leper colonies. In his case as well, I was always asking myself where he drew the strength to do all that he was doing and to overcome all the complex difficulties he faced.
When did you conceive the idea of joining the Franciscan Conventuals?
I was always attracted by the values of simplicity, fraternity and solidarity, and St. Francis incarnates these values more than anyone else. Through St. Francis I found the joy of my vocation and the desire to donate my life to God and to my fellow human beings.
I entered the Conventual Franciscan seminary at Camposampiero at the age of 10. It was a healthy environment filled with sound values; it also offered a solid Christian and general education.
I therefore spent my whole adolescence involved in various social initiatives under the guidance of the friars, and at 18 I felt the strong desire to become a Franciscan friar myself.
Don’t you think you were too young to enter Seminary at the age of 10? Scholars speak of the fact that children still have great need of their families at that age.
I entered seminary in the 1960s, and in those years certain choices just came ‘naturally’. Nowadays things are different. If I were a father, I would never send my 10-year-old child to a seminary; I would not even send him to a boarding school for that matter.
In my case, however, it was not premature because we were not asked to make any definite choices in that seminary. In fact at that age my head was filled with dreams.
I made my Solemn Profession in Milan at the age of 24, and that was 6 years after having made my first choice.
Since Solemn Profession, have you ever thought you were on the wrong path?
I have always felt that my choice to be a Franciscan was absolutely the best choice I could ever make because of its high moral values and ideals. Sometimes, however, I did not feel up to the challenge; I had doubts that I was able to live up to the faithfulness and intensity of commitment required of me. However, I never had any doubts that I was on the right path because my desire and vocation to be a Franciscan friar have never left me.
What image do you have of God?
God is love, God is strength, God is the source of life. God believes in us more than we believe in ourselves. And He always offers us the possibility of starting over; He encourages us to do our best. Jesus is the manifestation of a God whom I perceive mainly as a Father.
When one is in love, one wants to have an intense relationship with the person one loves. How do you look for this relationship with God?
The most beautiful moment in my relationship with God is when I celebrate the Eucharist. I feel that during this sacrament God is beside me in the deepest and truest sense of the word. I also feel that God is present every time I meet my fellow human beings. I see God’s face in the face of my brothers and sisters, so every person I meet shows me an aspect of God’s face.
However, every person I meet also challenges the way I see myself because he or she compels me to look squarely at my own faults and frailties. So God works through my neighbour to bring out the best in me.
A cathartic encounter for St. Francis was his meeting with the leper. Was there ever a similar moment in your own life?
I have always felt attracted to people in difficult situations, like the disabled, for instance. My pastoral experience with people who are physically or mentally challenged was always very important for me. Both in Milan and in Rome I formed groups, communities and associations to look after them. This work with the disabled has helped me in my choice to live a calling that is grounded in real life. These people who are facing real challenges have helped me to incarnate the Franciscan values of simplicity and solidarity, thus strengthening my call to be a man of God.
When ‘speaking’ with God, have you ever felt that there was a breakdown in communication? That no-one was at the other end?
I believe this breakdown in communication with God is a normal experience that every religious person feels at some time or other in their life. To be religious means to be a man or woman of faith, but faith would not be faith if doubt were not always in some way present. In some moments of my life I have felt this breakdown in communication strongly, and it brought me a lot of suffering; however, I have always had the experience that life itself eventually answered my doubts. So the light that I could not see in my dark moments did eventually come when I continued to trust wholly in God.
You are one of the friars of the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua. What does Anthony mean to you?
Anthony was surely a man of God who was able to unite the love of God with the love for his fellow human beings, and he did this with a force and passion that was so powerful and unique that today, after eight centuries, his example and witness is still so inspiring.
Saint Anthony shows us that the more you live the Gospel, the more you are able to provide answers to the world’s problems in the economic and social fields. Through Saint Anthony, God is telling us that the more we believe in the Gospel the more we can overcome those situations that represent the Culture of Death.
Living as I do in the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua makes me feel, in my heart and on my shoulders, the responsibility of interacting with the millions of people throughout the world who look up to Anthony as a spiritual and moral reference point.
This strong relationship with St. Anthony is not only felt now that I am the General Director of the Messenger of St. Anthony. I have felt it since I became a friar. Our whole life as friars here in the Basilica is characterised by the fact that we are St. Anthony’s fellow friars.
How would you explain the fact that after 800 years St. Anthony is still one of the Church’s best-loved saints?
Anthony’s holiness was impressive and powerful, and this, of itself, is a sign that God wanted to evangelise the world through him. That he still means so much to us after 800 years proves that he represents ‘God’s finger’, as it were.
The spiritual maxim which inspires our ministry, Gospel and Charity, expresses a great truth: that our solidarity and charity must be informed and inspired by Gospel values. Otherwise, as Pope Francis has pointed out, we run the risk of becoming inconsistent, of reducing ourselves to a mere Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). In other words, if I do not offer my neighbours the Gospel along with the material help that they need, I will not be answering their deep need of joy and truth.
Last July you were elected General Director of the Messenger of St. Anthony. What do you consider to be your principle task in this moment, and how do you intend to carry it out?
The first task I was asked to fulfil is that of being the living heart here in Padua of all the members of St. Anthony’s worldwide family, that is, of those who seek strength and hope in our Saint.
Therefore, my first task is to pray constantly for all our members, to bring to St. Anthony, and through him to the Lord, the desires and hopes of my fellow companions along the path: from Anthony to Jesus. I feel this as the most important task I have been entrusted with.
My task is also that of making sure that the Messenger of St. Anthony becomes an ever more effective means of communication for the men and women of today, and that the magazine is using a language that is effective and charismatic, in harmony with our times.
Finally, our task here as friars is that of being the first witnesses of how we may walk together in brotherhood and in the spirit of charity.
You were a parish priest for several years. Do you think young people are still interested in seeking God?
Absolutely. No human being can live without God, though many people do not realise this. In some periods of our lives we may easily be misled into thinking that we are on the driver’s seat, that we do not need anything or anyone. Then, one day, we realise that everything in our lives depends on someone else.
Life creates a thousand questions for young people, and this is normal. We can answer their questions only through our example. We cannot answer them through abstract concepts, theories. Therefore, the only way of speaking about God to young people is through the example of one’s own life founded in God.
One of the sacraments most in crisis today is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Why do you think this is so?
First of all, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is in crisis because human beings today are too centred in themselves: they are, so to speak, ‘drunk with themselves’. Many people are turning a deaf ear to the voice of their own consciences. This has created a problem with regard to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is the moment ‘par excellence’ of listening to one’s own inner life, one’s own heart.
Along with the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the most beautiful aid we have to become better people.
These two sacraments remind us that God believes in us and in our capacities. In a sense, man has never had so little faith in himself. Despite this, he believes he can find an answer to his questions, and also his happiness in this material world. He is therefore no longer listening to his heart, and in not listening to his heart he is no longer listening to God. In my personal experience the more people’s search for God is authentic, the more they need to meet God through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
However, this sacrament is also in crisis because there is a shortage of priests who are willing to dedicate time and heart to it. Priests have a thousand things to do; nevertheless, they should set aside time each the day to listen to their flock. If priests did this, people would better understand the great value of this sacrament.
What New Year wishes would you like to extend to our readers?
My wish for our readers is that they continue to fight as much as possible for what they believe in so that their dreams might come true. I encourage them to never grow tired of believing in a dream, but they should make sure that Jesus is part of that dream. This is because all dreams and wishes in which Jesus is not present are only fleeting, empty illusions. The more our dreams are grounded in Jesus, the more we will transform our lives for the better.
I also hope that our readers find the help they need to lead an authentic Christian life within their own communities and families in this magazine so that they may help make the world a better place.
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BORN IN Boara Pisani near Padua in 1957, Fr. Giancarlo Zamengo entered the Conventual Franciscan seminary at Camposampiero, near Padua, at the age of 10.
He professed his temporary vows at the age of 24, and he was ordained a priest in Milan in 1983.
Fr. Zamengo has served as a Franciscan friar in the communities of Milan, Rome and Padua, where he was parish priest of the Shrine of Arcella. This church preserves the small, unadorned cell where St. Anthony died on 13 June, 1231.
In August of this year Fr. Zamengo was nominated General Director of the Messenger of St. Anthony.
Updated on October 06 2016