Opera Don Calabria
Opera Don Calabria is a clearly deserving winner of the International Prize, with its work in spreading a message of culture in the world in the name of mutual understanding between peoples, social solidarity, peace, civil progress and sustainability. The origins of the Opera, which heads the Congregation of the Poor Servants of Providence, lie in the decision made by a humble and charismatic priest, Saint Giovanni Calabria (1873-1954), to take in a group of orphans (his ‘good children’) in a house in Verona in 1907.
Today, the ‘Calabrian Family’ is a multifaceted organisation with religious communities in 12 countries on five continents. The Opera works in four areas of activity: initiatives for disadvantaged children; the care of the sick in dozens of health centres and dispensaries and in four leading hospitals in different countries (in Italy in Negrar di Valpolicella); care for the disabled (health, school and vocational training, job placement and ‘after us’ training); and finally, pastoral work in 38 parishes and 17 centres of spirituality and hospitality.
The bearer of the simplicity and charisma of its sainted founder, this organisation carries out its social and humanitarian, medical and pastoral initiatives with great sensitivity in its regard for human marginalization, distress and health of body and soul. It transforms pain into hope and dignity and makes tangible the beauty of solidarity with its commitment to the common good; for this reason it can be defined as a “multinational corporation of good works,” present as it is in the five continents where it speaks Italian and represents the pride of Verona and the nation as a whole.
