Sermig was born from a dream

Dear Holy Father, thank you: we have longed for this meeting, praying for you. I will briefly tell our long story. My name is Ernesto Olivero, married, father and grandfather.
Maria, my beloved wife, she is now in Heaven. Sermig was born because I obeyed her: recently married, I was part of many missionary groups and she asked me to concentrate on a single commitment. Thus, thanks to Maria and my friends, Sermig, Youth Missionary Service was born. It was 1964. We wanted to help the poorest and fight hunger in the world. Then our project expanded in different directions.
One of the most important is the training of young people: now thousands of young people every year experience a training period at the Arsenale della Pace, our home in Turin.

We too have been trained over time. From the meetings we've had. Many, but I name only two. Giorgio La Pira made us aware of Isaiah's prophecy and the time in which weapons will become instruments of work and peace. Pope Paul VI told us that a revolution of love could start with us from Turin, the city of saints. Only later did we discover that in Turin, in Porta Palazzo, the neighborhood of social saints, there was an old military arsenal, a ruin of over 40,000 square meters where the weapons of the Risorgimento, First and Second World Wars had been manufactured.
With astonishment we thought that perhaps this was the place where the prophecy of Isaiah and the revolution of love that Pope Paul VI hoped for could live together.

We prayed for years to Maria Consolata. On 2 August 1983 we obtained the arsenal from the Municipality of Turin. With one pact: that we restore it with our own strength. It meant hundreds of millions of euros and we had no money, just a dream.
Thus the Arsenale della Pace was born thanks to the free work of millions of people, young people and adults, who gave back their time, professionalism and resources.
Now it is a house that is always open to those in need of a home: the poor, the young, the lost. Over the years, the Arsenale della Speranza has also arrived in Sao Paulo in Brazil to welcome people on the street; the Arsenale dell'Incontro in Madaba in Jordan for the disabled, a place of coexistence between Christians and Muslims; the Arsenale dell'Armonia on the Turin hill which welcomes seriously ill children.

Were you to visit one of the Arsenals, we are certain that you would be moved to see the contest of solidarity that has arisen around us. At the Turin Arsenal, for example, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, thousands of people rolled up their sleeves, brought 1,500 tons of aid which, with a bridge of solidarity, arrived directly in the affected areas. This is the miracle of the Arsenali. The people who see hope in this work and join the commitment to peace, the decided no to every war which is the dream we will never give up. Thanks to them, Sermig has grown. Thanks to YES, the vocations that make up the Fraternity of Hope: families, individuals, priests, consecrated men and women, young people.

The first YES was that of Rosanna Tabasso. Since I voluntarily resigned, she is in charge of Sermig. Thank you Holy Father! We love them!

Ernesto Olivero
In audience with Francis
NP February 2023