The ‘throwaway culture’

RICHARD A. SOKERKA

Listening to a violinist recently gave Pope Francis the opportunity to remind the faithful to turn away from our “throwaway culture” and do just the opposite.

At the Vatican earlier this month, Pope Francis listened as a violinist played a tune from a famous Italian composer on a multicolored violin made by prisoners using the wood of a shipwrecked migrants’ boat. He also accepted several boxes containing hundreds of hosts for use at Mass. Prisoners made some of them, as did residents of communities for people with disabilities, refugees, single mothers, and people recovering from addiction.

After the presentation he said, “You give signals that oppose the throwaway culture, which unfortunately is widespread.” The Pope told members of the Casa dello Spirito e delle Arti Foundation and people involved in the projects they sponsor, that rather than throwing away both people and things, “You are trying to build, with the ‘rejected stones,’ a house where you can breathe an atmosphere of social friendship and fraternity. Not everything is easy — we know — not everything is ‘roses and flowers.’ Each of us has his or her limits, mistakes, and sins. But God’s mercy is greater, and if we welcome each other as brothers and sisters, he forgives us and helps us to move on.”

Supported by the foundation, master violinmakers from Stradivari Institute of Cremona went to a Milan prison in 2013 and began teaching prisoners how to make violins. They use wood recuperated from boats that have sunk or been scuttled by the coast guard after attempts to bring migrants across the Mediterranean to Italy.

The workshop has expanded, and the prisoners now are using the recuperated wood to make Nativity scenes as well.

The host-making project, with a special press for making wafer thin, embossed hosts, has expanded to 16 different countries with a variety of communities involved. The hosts are given free to local parishes and religious congregations.

One of the latest projects, which began last October, involves making altar wine from the grapes grown in the 2.5-acre vineyard at the Alba prison in northern Italy.

“These are artisanal activities, and they also have a symbolic Christian value,” the Holy Father told his guests. “Preparing hosts for the Eucharistic celebration; making musical instruments from the wood recovered from migrants’ boats; carpentry, like St. Joseph and Jesus; the production of wine, which is a symbol of celebration like the wedding at Cana.”

Putting an end to our “throwaway culture” is something every Catholic should have a hand in, just as these artisanal activities do. All it takes is to put our Christian values into action.