Mission Turkey, land of encounters and borders
Book review. Roberto Ugolini, on mission in Turkey with his wife and daughter from 2000 to 2021
(by Chiara Anguissola)
Leaving their homeland, home, security and well-being, the Ugolini family goes on mission to Turkey to be a concrete example of Christian living.
This move represents the “call” to travel, to encounter, to seek the universal brotherhood Pope Francis speaks of in the encyclical Fratelli tutti.
Roberto Ugolini is the author of the volume
“Snow Crystals, Cotton Flakes – Turkey, Land of Encounters and Frontiers.”
His, is an engaging account of a 21-year-long mission.
From 2000 to 2021 since he, his wife Gabriella and daughter Constance answered the Lord’s call, deciding to live in Turkey between Sanliurfa, Van, an area on the far eastern border of the country, and Istanbul, ancient Constantinople.
They courageously live and share the daily reality of refugees and poor families of various ethnicities: Kurdish, Turkish, Armenian, Afghan, Iranian, Syrian and migrants from everywhere.
They learn different languages to communicate and meet the “other”; they know stories of broken lives and situations on the edge of survival; they help and participate in the pain and suffering.
In the book, the story of the young Iranian girl Zehra who, in prison under torture, relentlessly repeats Jesus’ words to the Father “forgive them the evil they are doing”(Luke 23:34) is moving.
The author-writes that the world is full of evangelical realities like Zehra’s and in the book he reports what he and his family experienced and knew.
In the preface, Archbishop of Izmir Martin Kmetec – points out – that Roberto Ugolini “the narrator of the book, sees in the sufferings and purity of life of the people he met on the way, an already redeemed humanity.
The Kingdom of Heaven,” Jesus said, ”belongs to the poor and the little ones.
The pages of this book are not meant to be an account of the Ugolini’s life on mission “as much as,” Roberto emphasizes, “an account of the importance that the lives of others have had in our lives, to the point of profoundly transforming them.
Fourteen years of preparation with Jesuit Father Paolo Bizzetti led Roberto, Gabriella and Costanza to make the final decision to leave Florence, their hometown, to be sent fidei donum to the vicariate of Anatolia. An authentic and shining example of family mission.