Casa Serena
CASA SERENA: HISTORY AND ORIGIN
Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala, M.C.
“I have absolutely no one for My very poor” (Jesus to Bl. Teresa M.C.)
It was about 8.30 a.m. of Thursday 11th May, 1989. I rang the door bell of the M.C. Sisters of San Gregorio al Celio, Rome. Lo and behold, the person who opened the door for me was Bl. Teresa M.C. With a big smile she said: “Good morning Fr. Sebastian, I have been thinking of you”. “Thank you, Mother, for thinking of me”, I said. She continued: “Listen”, she said. “Yes, Mother”, I answered. “I am in need of a place in Rome to build a house for AIDS patients. Can you find a proper place for me?” she asked. “We have space at our property at Prenestina. All that we need is the required permission to build the house,” I said. “Do one thing”, she said, “At 5.30 p.m. today we have a meeting in Carlo Cattaneo, near Termini train station. Bring a rough plan and we can show it to the people who are going to be there”. I went home and quickly made a rough plan with the help of an architect from South Africa, Mr. Kevin (R.I.P.), who had been staying with us for some time.
I joined them in the meeting and I showed them the rough plan made in the form of the big letter L. There were important people present: Mrs. Maria Pia Fanfani, Dr. Bilottta, Ing. Renato Tililio and several others whom I had not met before. Bl. Teresa told them of her desire to go to our place, to which they all agreed. For them, the words of Bl. Teresa were like the word of God. They were ready to do whatever she would ask of them.
They saw the place and reviewed the rough plan again. Bl. Teresa was excited. She said. “By Tuesday 14th November, 1989 I want the house to be ready. One of them said: “Mother Teresa, it is impossible to have the building ready by 14th November, with the burocracy in Rome”. Mrs. Maria Pia Fanfani came forward and said: “If Mother Teresa wants it by then, we will do it by then”. Some of them simply looked at one another and smiled.
Blessed John Paul II blesses and signs the project.
Bl. Teresa also stated that the following morning she was going to have Holy Mass with Bl. John Paul II, and she would take the rough plan we had made to be blessed and signed by him. And she did it. She took the plan with her and, after the Holy Mass in his private chapel, Bl. Teresa M.C. explained to the Holy Father her desire and showed him the plan. Bl. John Paul II very happily blessed it and put his signature on it. The date was 12.05.1989.
Meeting with the Mayor.
We planned to meet the following week again at our place with a proper plan. The project was ready. It was signed by the architect Caloisi, the same architect who built the Olympic stadium in Rome. With the project plan the engineer, Mr. Marco, and others approached the Mayor of Rome, his Excellency Giubilo, whose group did not agree with the idea and so did not approve the project.
The Mayor came to meet Bl. Teresa at our place and expressed his regrets and told her that his “giunta” was trying to throw him out, which they eventually did.
Blessed Teresa gives up the idea.
Bl. Teresa M.C. returned to Kolkata with hopes that the home for the AIDS patients would be ready by 14th November 1989. Mrs. Maria Pia Fanfani gave the impression that it was possible and that I had to go to their office, where she spoke of meeting regularly with one of her secretaries, which I did for a while. In the meantime Bl. Teresa M.C. was informed of the impossibility of having the house ready by the date she had in mind. Coming to know about it, she wrote a letter to all those concerned that she had no more interest in the matter and so to forget about the project. All those who were trying to help to get the project approved drew back and had no more interest, as Bl. Teresa M.C. had clearly expressed it in her letter.
From AIDS victims to Night shelter.
I discerned with God’s help the need to continue, trying no longer for the same purpose, but to have a night shelter for homeless men of the streets of Rome.
After about three years of going around, meeting numerous people, with much prayer and sacrifice, finally on Tuesday 10 March 1992, we received the permission to build a prefabricated house for our homeless men.
I cannot thank God enough for all the graces and blessings he has bestowed on us for his beloved homeless men. God gave us some simple and generous souls who helped us to meet certain people in the offices, one of whom was Mrs. Isa Gai and others like her.
It was about this time that a man came asking me how he could help us in our night ministry. This was God’s providence, as I came to know that he was an architect. I explained to him about what was going to take place, to which he said that he was more than happy to direct the work, once the project had its final approval. So architect Marino Valletta kept his word. He spent his time and energy for the realization of “Casa Serena”. Although he had not made a fourth vow of whole-hearted free service, he practiced it. May God bless him for his great indispensable and timely help. “God still hears the cry of the poor”.
Choice of a name.
To choose a name for our night shelter was necessary. I prayed a novena and wrote twenty different names. From twenty names I picked out three names. I prayed again and from the three I cast lots again and the lot fell on the name “Casa Serena”. This was done in Albania during our annual retreat in May 1993, preached by Fr. Pitrie S.J. from Malta.
The house was still not quite ready. So when the house was more or less ready, we had its first blessing and inauguration on the eve of Pentecost Sunday, 29th May 1993 with Msgr. G. Mani and Bl. Teresa M.C. The house was not ready yet to take the people in. So on Saturday 4th September 1993, His Excellency Cardinal Camillo Ruini finally blessed the house, which by then was ready to receive our homeless men in. “Casa Serena” was the silver jubilee memorial of two of the first persevering members of the M.C. Family: Bro. Damien M.C. (R.I.P.) and Fr. Sebastian M.C. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever” (Ps. 136: 1).
Our volunteers, LMCs, benefactors.
Casa Serena was built with the help of innumerable small and great benefactors to whom we owe so much gratitude. Even the trees in the garden were donated by various people. Some donated a door, another a window, etc. ”Little drops of water, little grains of sand, make a mighty ocean”. That was how Casa Serena was built!
Right from the beginning many generous and devoted volunteers came forward, offering their hands to cook and serve and their hearts to love and help our men. Our heart-felt thanks go to God for all our generous co-workers, volunteers, LMCs, benefactors and others who have remained faithful up to this day. Words are really inadequate to express our gratitude. Each single one of them is in our daily prayers and sacrifices. The good Lord, who sees them in secret, will reward them in abundance.
Blessed Teresa Birth Centenary Memorial
Casa Serena can accommodate only 76 men in all and is practically full all the time. There are five to ten telephone enquiries a day for a bed, which most times we have to say ”no” to, as the house is full. On 27th December 2010 we had the first memorial stone blessed by his Eminence Cardinal Angelo Comastri, in the presence of Gianni Alemanno, the Mayor of Rome, Sr. Prema M.C., the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity Sisters, and many other distinguished persons for Bl. Teresa Birth Centenary Memorial. Up until now the final project for presentation to the administrative offices is yet not ready. We are faced with so many different kinds of obstacles that the project so far has nor gone forward. We are in need of more fervent prayers and generous sacrifices, to prevent the evil one from putting stumbling blocks in the way to its realization.
The initial project.
The rough plan signed by Bl. John Paul II on 12th May 1989 was framed and kept for a long time at the main entrance of Casa Serena. Unfortunately humidity, dampness and severe cold the signature of the Holy Father is hardly visible. Right now we have the original framed, together with one of the photocopies taken before it was blurred. The signature of Bl. John Paul II and the date on it are very clear on the photocopy.
It was a very big surprise for me to see the photograph of Bl. John Paul II putting his signature on it in the presence of Bl. Teresa M.C. in her tiny little room in Kolkata, where she stayed from 1953 to1997. A framed photograph of the same can also be found on the Sisters’ floor in “Dono di Maria” (“Gift of Mary”) in the Vatican. The logical conclusion, though wrong, is that Bl. Teresa M.C. and some of the Sisters thought, and perhaps still believe, that the signed project by Bl. John Paul II is that of Dono di Maria in the Vatican. For us it is a real relic of two of our contemporary saints, both of whom had much to do with our Contemplative Branch (cf. Bl. Teresa’s letter to Bl. John Paul II, 16th June 1993).
Why Casa Serena is built in “L” form?
Casa Serena is built in “L shape”, and the original project too is in that form. Why is it in “L” form? To express the twofold commandment of love. The vertical line stands for God’s love for his poor, and for all those who take care of them, and for their love for God. The horizontal line stands for our love for our neighbour, especially our love for our poor people. “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbour as you love yourself” (Lk 10: 27) is the first and most important commandment.
Casa Serena is the house of God for his poor, the homeless men who are fifty years old and above, who are willing to live according to the Statutes of Casa Serena.
Casa Serena is not simply a dormitory, nor is it simply a feeding centre, but it is where our people are helped to realize their human dignity and worth. Their dignity does not depend on their status in life. The dignity of a person is based on the fact that the person is created by God in his own image to know him more clearly, to love him more dearly and follow him more closely. In the Gospels we will never see Jesus concentrating on the body alone nor only on the soul, but he takes the person in his totality, body and soul. The body should not become an obstacle to the soul. This is also in line with what Jesus said to Bl. Teresa from the Cross in her third vision: “Will you refuse to do this for Me, to take care of them (the poorest of the poor), to bring them to Me?” (cf. Bl. Teresa’s letter, 3rd December 1947).
Make us worthy, Lord, to love and adore you in the Bread of Life and make us worthy, Lord, to love and serve you in the poorest of the poor.