The Worker

When he took over his new parish three years ago, energetic Don Giuseppe Bon-insegna was well aware that he was a "missionary in the land of the faithless." The little village of Gaggio di Piano is the Reddest village in Bologna province, and Bologna province is the Reddest province in Italy. Only about 200 of Don Giuseppe's 3,000 parishioners were faithful Roman Catholics; the rest were more or less faithful Communists.

After the election last June, the 35-year-old priest felt more like a benighted missionary than ever. Though there was virtually no unemployment and the wine industry was flourishing, Gaggio di Piano gave the Christian Democrats only 161 votes against 1,020 for the Communist Party. Don Giuseppe decided that what he needed was a working-class appeal. He began buttonholing members of his infidel flock and telling them: "The essence of Christianity is work--material as well as spiritual. Why, Christ himself was a worker for 30 of his 33 years." Somewhat to his surprise, a few of the infidels listened.

Don Giuseppe announced that the parish would build a recreation center and dedicate it to Christ the Worker. The Communists sneered at the project and started a campaign against it. but a few of their supporters chipped in on the sly.

Last week, at the still unfinished "House of the Worker" on the village's main square, Don Giuseppe prepared to dedicate the first monument in Italy to depict Christ as a worker: a 4-by-8-ft. cement bas relief by Roman Sculptor Egidio Giaroli showing Christ as a carpenter at work with two assistants under the gaze of Mary. Bologna's famed archbishop, Giacomo Cardinal Lercaro (TIME, March 30), came to town for the ceremony.

When the day dawned, however, it was the Communists of Gaggio di Piano who rubbed their hands. Rain-heavy clouds scudded down from the Apennines and broke into a pelting downpour. No speech was possible at the ceremony; after a hasty unveiling, the cardinal gathered his sopping robes around him and made a dash for the rectory. But Don Giuseppe had his reward. Through the streaming rain and into the church for Mass, then out again into the drenched square, came almost 800 men. women and children--the biggest congregation the priest had ever seen in Gaggio di Piano.

Drying out afterward in the rectory, the cardinal took the village priest aside. "My son." he said, "you have hit the right road!"

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