Well done, Good Servant! You have been Faithful in this Very Small Matter"

Today's Mass Reading

On a recent trip to Rome I viewed a photo exhibit at St. Peter’s called “Vatican Click.” The exhibit featured candid photos of the popes taken by Vatican photographers over the last few decades. I was surprised when, during the exhibit, I came across several photos of Villa Nazareth, a residence for underprivileged college students from Southern Italy studying in Rome. I asked a fellow professor who had lived at Villa Nazareth during college why, amongst hundreds of photos of the popes, there were several pictures of Villa Nazareth. Her response was yet another surprise. “Don’t you know the reputation of that place?” she asked. At the time, I did not. On a recent trip to Rome I viewed a photo exhibit at St. Peter’s called “Vatican Click.” The exhibit featured candid photos of the popes taken by Vatican photographers over the last few decades. I was surprised when, during the exhibit, I came across several photos of Villa Nazareth, a residence for underprivileged college students from Southern Italy studying in Rome. I asked a fellow professor who had lived at Villa Nazareth during college why, amongst hundreds of photos of the popes, there were several pictures of Villa Nazareth. Her response was yet another surprise. “Don’t you know the reputation of that place?” she asked. At the time, I did not.

Today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke reminds me of Villa Nazareth.

After the Second World War, when Europe was suffering through recovery, Domenico Tardini was a priest and member of the Roman Curia working at the Vatican. Having been involved for some time with mentoring young people despite his growing ecclesial duties, Tardini was so moved by the plight of orphans who had lost their parents during the war that in 1946 he started Villa Nazareth. He was aided in his endeavors by American priests and lay people who, like the servants in today’s Gospel, invested their resources wisely. Villa Nazareth quickly became a respected and model institution for young people in Italy. In 1958, Tardini was named Vatican Secretary of State by Pope John XXIII. Shortly thereafter he was made a bishop and elevated to the rank of cardinal. He remained Vatican Secretary of State until his death in 1961. Villa Nazareth remained dear to his heart until the end.

In time, Villa Nazareth was converted from a place for war orphans to a residence for poor (mostly southern) Italian college students who cannot afford to live in Rome while attending university. Since 1946, thousands of young people without recourse to an education have exited the gates of Villa Nazareth and entered the world as properly formed adults. In return for the generosity they received, Tardini asked one thing of these young people – that they follow the Gospel injunction to invest their talents wisely by continuing to support Villa Nazareth after graduation. In this way, the Villa would continue to flourish by living off of the generosity of its heirs.

Today, Villa Nazareth is under the direction of Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, who retired in 2000 as Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental (Eastern) Churches. The popes continue to make regular visits to the Villa, as do countless Italian politicians and luminaries. There is also a growing movement for the canonization of Cardinal Tardini. However, despite the notoriety, in its day-to-day operations the Villa is true to its humble beginnings and is run by several of the orphans who were first rescued by Cardinal Tardini after the war. By all accounts these first protégés of Cardinal Tardini have served the Villa well. From its inception in 1946, Villa Nazareth has grown to become an internationally recognized educational and cultural institution with exchange programs at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, St. John’s University in New York, and our own beloved University of Dayton here in Ohio. Each year, dozens of UD students from the Italian Language Program and the School of Business study at Villa Nazareth, while students from Villa Nazareth study engineering and business at UD.

From the humble generosity of one man, aided by those with the necessary financial resources, an idea motivated by Gospel charity germinated into reality. The return has been ten, twenty, one hundred, one thousand-fold.

You can visit Villa Nazareth online by clicking the English language link at www.villanazareth.org.

- Michael Lombardo