Servant of God ATTILIO GIORDANI (1913-1972)
A layman “in the Don Bosco mould”
The vocation of a Salesian-Cooperator
Father, catechist, oratory leader, Salesian-Cooperator and missionary in Mato Grosso. A parishioner of St Augustine’s served by the Salesians in Milan, Attilio was the guiding spirit of the oratory and of the parish: a magician in the oratory, with a great creative imagination, sense of joy and eductional success with the youngsters. His vocation as a committed lay person developed and matured within the oratory, with the apostolic and cheerful heart of Don Bosco. He was an exceptional actor, with an attractive, natural and fresh style. He had something special, more a grace than the skills of an actor. What drew people to him was a beautiful inner gift. Being with the youngsters is Don Bosco’s vocation and that of every Salesian. Don Bosco called it "assistance." Attilio’s way of being among the young was as magnetic as his acting.. He was not afraid of the youngsters but quite natural with them. But he went to great trouble to prepare everything before hand. He knew how to listen to them, and listened carefully, taking notice of what they said with a lively ready rejoinder for each one. Always cheerful and optimistic, his way of pulling their leg was gentle and offended no one. In general he spoke the Milanese dialect. It was quite a sight to see Attilio among the youngsters: that’s what Don Bosco must have been like! He looks after the group while keeping an eye on the individuals. He is aware of what is going on and what the youngsters are up to and creatively keeps it in bounds. If instead of learning their catechism they become noisy,, he is quite happy for them to shout, to jump about, get a bit of fresh air and then take up the reins again and become silent. His skill is in adapting himself to circumstances.
The stages of his development were those of his times: at the time of Fascism he sought freedom in the oratory, in Catholic Action; in wartime and the post-war period, when in politics and in the parties there were surly looks, he thought up the Crusade of Kindness; in the turbulent times when the young began taking over from the older generation void of ideals he supported the Mato Grosso Operation which he children brought home. His method and his way of being among the young showed his constant concern for their spiritual welfare, his respect for them. What Don Bosco asked from his Salesians, in Attilio was always a job well done. The message Attilio gave through this method of his which was always uptodate, can be summed up in the expression "loving kindness." And all this he shared with Noemi, his fiancée and then his wife, who was happy to be fully caught up in the overwhelming enthusiasm of her Attilio: “Dear Noe, may the Lord help us not to be easy-going do-gooders, to live in the world without being of the world, to go against the current.. »
In Attilio, Don Bosco was incarnated! In cheerfulness, being among the youngsters; also in piety: a simple piety, the sort which prays before meals: «Thank you Jesus for the bread you have given us, give some also to those without ». Attilio lived in union with God, with Don Bosco. His day began with him getting up at 6.00 and then at 6.30 being in church for mass and holy communion. If there was no altar server he wasn’t ashamed to go himself at 58/59 years of age to serve the mass. Then meditation. Then home, listen to the radio with the latest news and off to work. He returned home at midday. After lunch he went to the Salesians at St. Ambrose’s in Milan. He knows all of them there: from the Provincial to the last blind Salesian from Bethlehem. And when there is someone who is suffering or a bit on the fringes he is there. He says good bye to the Salesians and tben every day makes a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacramanent.
You can understand his life from his death. Alt sixty years of age Attilio Giordani, with his wife Noemi, his eldest son Pier and his youngest daughter Paola, leaves for Brazil - Mato Grosso. He tells parents: "If we want, and we should, share our childrens’ vocation, understand our youngsters, when they make some important and significant decisions, we need to be ready to follow our youngsters to support them in their trials, to be able to judge what they are doing and why.” "In life it’s not so much saying what we need to do. Preaching is not what counts, but what we do. We need to show with our lives what we believe in. There are no sermons to be given. Our life is the sermon.” His life is all go with the young. He comes to the finish at a rush showing what the constant vocation of the Christian is : to give life! What it is to be young to the last day. Frequently Attilio had said: “Death should find us alive.” He was so alive in the ordinary things, in cheerfulness, in piety, also in the final meeting with the Lord there he is ready to continue to be among the youngsters in the Salesian garden in heaven. Death takes him as he is talking at a missionary meeting in Campo Grande (Brazil), when not feeling well he rests his head on the shoulder of Fr Ugo De Censi and whispers to his son: «Pier Giorgio, you carry on ». That’s the message Attilio also leaves to us: to carry on being Don Bosco alive today with joy and passion to the very end.
