Milan, 1 August (LaPresse) – “The post-Don Mazzi era is a gamble; then again, it was already a gamble from the start.” These were the words of Franco Taverna, vice-president of Exodus, speaking on the sidelines of the lying-in-state for Don Antonio Mazzi, founder of the community, who died yesterday in Milan. “We were fortunate to have a great guide who, in recent years, has done nothing but this: guiding the whole movement, guiding the whole group,” continued Taverna. “The culmination came last November, on his birthday: we revised the constitution, amended it and incorporated, in a sense, all the different strands of Exodus into it.” Up until that point, the community had focused solely on drug addicts. “From then on, from that moment, it brought people together; it found a way to unite, within a single structure, all the organisations that had sprung up in the meantime – the associations, the co-operatives, the consortia,” he added. “The future of Exodus will be precisely this: it will be a multifaceted organisation, made up of many, polycentric, yet united by the same spirit.” The fundamental issue remains. “Within this, there is indeed still this element of taking a gamble; there was this idea of education lived out within an itinerant, street-based model, heading towards a promised land, but adapted to the realities of today. This is the future,” concluded Taverna.
Don Mazzi, Taverna: ‘The future of Exodus will be a gamble’
Milan, 1 August (LaPresse) – “The post-Don Mazzi era is a gamble; then again, it was already a gamble from the start.” These were the words of Franco Taverna, vice-president of Exodus, speaking on the sidelines of the lying-in-state for Don Antonio Mazzi, founder of the community, who died yesterday in Milan. “We were fortunate to have a great guide who, in recent years, has done nothing but this: guiding the whole movement, guiding the whole group,” continued Taverna. “The culmination came last November, on his birthday: we revised the constitution, amended it and incorporated, in a sense, all the different strands of Exodus into it.” Up until that point, the community had focused solely on drug addicts. “From then on, from that moment, it brought people together; it found a way to unite, within a single structure, all the organisations that had sprung up in the meantime – the associations, the co-operatives, the consortia,” he added. “The future of Exodus will be precisely this: it will be a multifaceted organisation, made up of many, polycentric, yet united by the same spirit.” The fundamental issue remains. “Within this, there is indeed still this element of taking a gamble; there was this idea of education lived out within an itinerant, street-based model, heading towards a promised land, but adapted to the realities of today. This is the future,” concluded Taverna.
