NOMADELFIA (GR)

Nomadelfia is a community founded by Don Zeno Saltini (1900 i 1981) in 1948: since his youth, this priest aspired to live a concrete and incarnate faith in everyday life. He began by helping the orphans of his parish. Gradually, some families began to collaborate with him giving a family back to these abandoned children. In 1948, Fr Zeno and these families felt called by God to be the seed for a more fraternal and supportive society. It was no longer enough to heal the wounds of an unjust society. It was necessary to propose an alternative: thus Nomadelfia was born. The Nomadelfi share their life in family groups where 3 or 4 live together. Goods are shared and, having overcome the concept of ownership, there is no need for money to circulate. In work, there is no career and everyone is available to do any kind of work, in the knowledge that every activity has the same dignity. There is no unemployment because everyone has a role. The disabled and the elderly continue to work in proportion to their possibilities, so that no one feels useless. Families choose to be open to the needs of others and are willing to take in and educate children in need on an equal footing with their natural children. Each adult feels responsible not only for his own but for all the children of other families. Sobriety and mutual forgiveness are fundamental values. For the State, Nomadelfia is a civil association; for the Church, it was established as a parish in 1962 and recognized as a private association of the faithful in 1994. Nomadelfia is a direct democracy.