Incredible and fascinating story of Angela

March 3, 1982
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ANGELA GROESSER KEPT IN PRISON AT SANTA SCOLASTICA.
She asks for a meeting with the Pope
to resolve her problem.

As soon as she'll have finished to serve her sentence (40 days of imprisonment)
she'll have to return in Austria. But she wants to stay in her community at Viole of Assisi. Angela Groesser the austrian teacher condamned to a sentence of fourty days of imprisonment - because she re-entered secretly in Italy - did express the desire to meet the Pope, on the occasion of His visit to Assisi March 12 next. Angela would like to submit her problem to the Pope - explains Massimo Coppo, "Mimon" (minimum) for the members of the "Comunità Cristiana" of Viole of Assisi -. And the problem even is incredible: she has been expelled from Italy without any valuable reasons and now she cannot move between her native country Austria and Italy, like a normal citizen can do. Let's think about the end of the fourty days, when Angela will have finished to serve the sentence. Why cannot she move in Italy, come to Assisi to follow the Word of the Lord ? Angela would like to ask the Pope to get to defend the rights of spiritual and religious liberty. But now Angela is kept in prison at Perugia and the meeting with Wojtyla cannot take place anyway. Why ? If there is the good will of men, if the Lord enlightens them, this meeting could be held. Angela would be happy and free. The members of the "Comunità Cristiana" of Viole of Assisi would like to meet Angela, who is kept in prison at Perugia for about two weeks now. But notwithstanding a regular request has been presented to the surveillance office, they could not have this opportunity. We would like to let know to our sister Angela - Coppo is saying - that we are very close to her not only in prayer. But for now we are not allowed to see her and they make us clear that it will take quite a long time to receive the answer for our request. The "case" of Angela Groesser makes Vienna and Assisi discuss about it. The young austrian teacher has a deep religious vocation, for sure prior to her encounter with Marcello the founder and the "guide" (so his brethren call him) of the "Comunità Cristiana". When Angela met Marcello, an ex-industrialist, she followed him at Viole believing that this was the best way to "follow the Lord". And the decision of the young woman is firm. "I will not give up - she also said to the reporters during the trial in the Courthouse - my home is at Viole". Angela who broke with her parents (Oskar and Marianna Groesser) also renounced her inheritance, that should be considerable, just to follow her vocation. Her parents who won't thwarten at all whatever religious choice she makes, on the contrary obstruct her relations with the "Comunità Cristiana", asserting that Angela has been "brain-washed" by Ciai and that she is anyhow in her good faith exploited by the "prophet".

08-20-2001

His Holiness,

As President of the Association IACA - International Association for Christian Action -

I ask to be received urgently by You to obtain Your resolutive intervention: to the favour of the "Comunità Famiglie di Betlemme", since twenty years situated in Assisi, of benedictine inspiration, declared "heretic" by the bishop of Assisi in 1994, with great suffering for its founder Marcello Ciai, the families and the children involved; and to the favour of the association itself which from its constitution (1991) is object of slaunder as for the bishop and the parish priest of its seat in Assisi.

Infact in the bishop's notification the IACA, a voluntary-service association -ONLUS- with two seats in Umbria (Assisi and Piegaro) and 3000 associates, has been involved too.

The Association is active in various kinds of solidarity and supports also the "Comunità Famiglie di Betlemme".

As my brother in the faith, Mimon, I will stay here in front of Your residence in prayer and penance, awaiting to be received by You, Holy Father, to be able to clarify personally many things difficult to write: in order that finally the Community can return into the bossom of its "Mother Church" and the Association be estranged from this recurring slaunder.

                        I ask for your blessing, Holy Father
                  with reverence,

                 Angela Groesser

Angela Groesser, an Austrian teacher, daughter of a well-to-do Viennese family (her father is a Senate's councellor) at the age of 27 left everything to join up with the religious community founded a short time ago, in Assisi, by Marcello Ciai.

"She gave herself up in a life of fervour, work and prayer", so they wrote about her in many newspaper-articles interested on her case, "but also in an existence marked by great sacrifices". In 1982 began towards her a disconcerting "case of persecution" because of her Viennese parents, who with their influence and the alliance of the religious authority of Assisi, did obtain that for two times she was expelled from Italy, even though without any valid reasons. As she came back "secretly" to her community and her vocation, she ended up in the women's jail of Perugia, the first time (in 1982) for 40 days and then (in 1984) for two months. Disinherited, even interned in a mental hospital with a strait-jacket and under psychotropic medicine, Angela "has not given way neither to enticements nor to threats"; she also signed the rejection of an inheritance and in spite of the adversities and the difficulties she did continue her way of faith, until she obtained (in 1990) a regular residence permit with the "Community Famiglie di Betlemme" at Assisi.

In 1996 she has been elected to act as chairman of the IACA - International Association for Christian Action -: an ONLUS organization that in having taken care of the "Community Famiglie di Betlemme", has also shared the ..... bishop's "excommunication".

Here is what happened then after seven days and seven nights of Angela's fasting in front of the Papal Palace at Castel Gandolfo :
A letter of Angela's own hand to Monsignor Stanislao, general secretary of the Pope, who has taken to heart the case.

08.28.2001

Your Excellency,

Just a short time ago I've heard from Assisi, from our founder Marcello Ciai, that the bishop of Assisi asked for an encounter with him which, because of his illness, probably will take place in the community itself.
To be able to let this encounter go on in the maximum liberty and without any pressure, Marcello has expressed me his desire to return to Assisi, hoping to come to a successful conclusion of the same and that after this long time, everything may be resolved as well for the community as for the Association at Assisi.
At the end it urges me to say to You that all that I've done and asked for insistently during these past days, comes only from the love for God and His Church, to be able to serve Him without all these obstacles.
I ask for Your blessing for this work in Assisi.

With the love of a daughter,

Finally in 2006, this story ends successfully: the Bishop of Assisi Monsignor Sergio Goretti has revoked the notification of "heresy" and redeemed the "Community Families of Bethlehem" within the Catholic Church, and therefore also Angela Groesser.

Books on a prophetic work risen in Assisi more than thirty years ago, which is involving the world.