Milan, and the nuns who transform the outskirts into places of encounter

by Pierluigi Banna*

The outskirts of a big city like Milan are often the headline grabbling locations for various emergencies that fill the news pages and alarm public opinion. For example, squatted houses, non-integrated immigrants, youth gangs, and macro and micro criminality to name just a few.

Rarely, however, do we hear about the fundamental, often silent, role played by certain women in fostering integration between different nationalities and generations in these borderlands.

In front of a market stall, or while waiting at a bus stop, or in line at the paediatrician’s, starting from some small detail of daily life, women begin to share their stories and discover they are closer to one another than they had imagined. Among these even lesser-known women from the suburbs, there are also some consecrated women. Here are just two examples. In the Baggio neighbourhood, for the past five years, three Sisters of the Annunciation have lived in a public housing building. They are two elementary school teachers and a social worker, and spiritual daughters of Saint Charles de Foucauld. Across the city, in the Quarto Oggiaro district, the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Benedictine cloistered nuns, moved in last September. In the diversity of their vocations, these consecrated women spark the sympathy of those they meet, first and foremost, children, who find themselves praying with them and for them, as well as many others who offer practical help for their communities or join them for shared meals.

These female presences, so different from the common idea of womanhood, so different from one another, and yet so united in the offering of their lives to Christ, help break down social and cultural barriers that at times seem insurmountable. Two episodes are worth recounting. One afternoon, the Benedictines met with about twenty Muslim mothers. After exchanging their life stories, the most intimate questions began: “How do you deal with jealousy among yourselves?”; “Why do you wear a ring on your finger?”; “What does it mean for you, too, to wear a veil?” From then on, an unexpected familiarity was born.

A few kilometres away, the Sisters of the Annunciation, amid their many daily and unexpected encounters, arranged a visit with a few volunteer university students to the home of a very neglected woman, who was usually seen wandering the streets in her pyjamas. For the occasion, she felt so honoured that she went to the hairdresser and even bought three glasses to offer her guests some tea. They spent the whole morning together.

The emergencies in the outskirts remain. And yet, among women who offer their lives, new paths of dialogue and encounter are opening. These are paths that only women know how to create.

*Priest of the Diocese of Milan, patrologist