Word: zeno
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...dream of Don Zeno Saltini, parish priest, was to found a community that would "return to the origins of Christianity after a lapse of 20 centuries." As a curate, he began by setting up lodgings for homeless children. In 20 years these grew into Nomadelphia-the "Town of Brotherhood," a settlement of 1,150 souls, most of them orphans under 15, outside the Italian city of Modena (TIME, June...
...young citizens of Nomadelphia, whom Don Zeno called his "Little Apostles," lived a life of Christian communism. Food, clothing and other necessities came from a common supply, much of which they produced themselves. All the children were divided into "families," headed by adult couples or "mothers," pledged to raise them as their...
...Zeno, now 52, presided over it all like an unconventional patriarch, counseling his children, praying with them, and playing his accordion for them. Instead of his clerical soutane, he wore a beret and turtleneck sweater. Unfortunately, he was never able to dodge conventional economics. With most of its citizens too young to earn enough money to support the colony, Nomadelphia accumulated a disastrous debt of 310 million lire (nearly $500,000). By last month the creditors were growing restless...
Vatican authorities worried about Don Zeno's debts. They also doubted the wisdom of having a community built so completely around one man's personality. Fortnight ago, the Holy Office told Don Zeno that the time had come for him to leave Nomadelphia. A group of Salesian fathers would be assigned to teach the children, a commission appointed to unscramble the debts...
Raising donations for the land, clearing it and putting up buildings will take adroit managing, but Don Zeno is more worried about safeguarding the ideas on which he has built his Christian experiment. "Here in Nomadelphia," he says, "we are living the true Gospel. We have no debts. It is society that has the debt to care for children who have no homes...