community bonds
By CHRISTINA McINTYRE
News Writer
Promoting a tighter sense of community despite the various cultural and economic boundaries which face the South Bend area., Lou Nanni, executive assistant to University president Father Edward Molloy, spoke at the First Unitarian Church on Thursday night.
Nanni stressed the importance of relationships within the community. "There is no quick or easy way to build community and you can't build community in any way but one relationship at a time," Nanni said.
Forming such relationships across the homeless divide is especially difficult, but is essential to the whole community. "The homeless need the larger society just as much as the larger society needs the homeless," Nanni said.
According to Nanni, four steps are necessary to transcend this divide.
"We must do four things: walk with them, listen to them, engage in dialogue with them, and break bread together. The journey is painful, the journey is long, but the benefits and joy far exceeds the pain and hardship," he said.
Problems arise within communities when its members will not devote enough time to concentrate and focus on these steps.
"Whatever sector, most leaders are inattentive to the first two steps. Instead, they `talk at' and `do for'," Nanni said.
There must be a willingness, he stressed, to listen and to learn from the homeless. "You must let them know that they have something significant to share and you must have a hunger to tap into their wisdom and brokenness."
Previously executive director of the Center for the Homeless for eight years, Nanni, a Notre Dame graduate, helped transform it "from a concept with humble beginnings to national prominence," according to Chuck Leone , member of the First Unitarian Church congregation. His lecture was the second of a three-part series at the Church that focuses on supporting community in an individualistic society.
All News Stories for Friday, February 25, 2000
