As a couple, they wanted to go on a mission to Africa immediately after their marriage. A painful impediment blocked their project, not their generosity. So they set up a life of service to others. Then, they moved to Montet and, more recently, to Loppiano.
During their engagement, a desire to go on a mission to Africa had grown stronger and stronger. And it wasn’t just an exuberant youthful dream, but a concrete life perspective for Claudio and Patrizia. Shortly before their wedding, however, her father died and the sudden new family situation changed their plans, but didn’t dampen their missionary zeal.
They got married in September 1972, he was 25 and she was 20. They decided that their honeymoon couldn’t be traditional and chose Loppiano as their destination. Driving there, the newlyweds Patrizia and Claudio Gruppo decide to make a detour to a prison. They went to visit an inmate. Then they returned to their home in Sesto San Giovanni, on the outskirts of Milan. ‘We took in a street girl for a few months to help her get out of prostitution. The young woman left, and we took in that prisoner who, in the meantime, had finished serving his sentence’.
Claudio is a metalworking expert and is involved in the parish Catholic Action group. Patrizia is a primary school teacher and is active with the scouts and Catholic Action. They invited her to participate in the Mariapolis of Bergamo in 1970. She was struck by the experiences of living the Gospel and by Chiara’s words. ‘I cried for three days,’ she recalls with emotion, ‘and I immediately began to change my lifestyle.’
Claudio, on the other hand, was perplexed by the Focolare spirituality. ’I was suspicious, but after six months, I began to change my attitude, and the light began to shine within me.’ He works for large companies and is highly regarded, so much so that he is given a very delicate task, as the person responsible for the timing and production methods of the assembly lines. They have three children, but their daughter passed away at an early age.
Their missionary spirit is expressed through hospitality. So their hearts and their home welcomed troubled children, street girls, immigrants in difficulty. Once they retired, their generosity didn’t slow down. On the contrary. And with no more work commitments, they were even freer. So, when they were offered the chance to spend three months in the Swiss town of Montet, they felt the call to ‘leave’. It wouldn’t be Africa, but they were still answering a call. The initial three months turned into three years. They taught Italian to young people, did various jobs, started a local group of families, and became a point of reference for those who shared their vocation as volunteers of God in the Movement.
The closure of Montet brought them back home and to their previous life. They reactivated their many local relationships, and their altruism was unleashed. The path was mapped out and the future was certain. But they listened to a speech by the president of the Focolare Movement. ‘Margaret Karram spoke of the need to work for a peaceful Mediterranean and emphasised the need for those who felt called to make that “Send me” of Scripture their own’. So the request they had recently received to move to Loppiano took on an even greater meaning. ‘We quickly offered our services’.
So, on 20th September last year Claudio and Patrizia arrived in Loppiano. Destination, the large house ‘Visitazione’. Task, that of teaching Italian to participants from various schools, from young people to adults, to priests. Patrizia is also a very good cook. Claudio knows how to prune, tend the vegetable garden, work with wood and paint. They have started to invite to dinner focolares, groups of young people, priests, and many others. Since the Visitation, the Claudio and Patrizia have started a group, sharing family experiences, with a web of relationships, all in the name of the Gospel. Their presence continues to highlight the name of this part of Loppiano, given to it by Chiara Lubich.
