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Holiness is not contrary to commitment to business or work. Indeed, they are stars that light up and make the city of men more just.

by Michele Gatta

This month's story is about one of us, someone from "next door" so to speak. Of a hydraulic engineer who deals in particular with water purification in a region of Southern Italy. As soon as he arrived at the company he realized that perhaps he was the only one who was there not for recommendations, but for his CV.

With great commitment in the first months he managed to start up the fifty purifiers he had to take care of which had remained closed until then. Later he also took care of the water to be purified for other companies. He says that «everywhere I went I realized that the rigorous management of public waters, the health of citizens, the future of our children, the good of a city were second-rate values ​​compared to profit and private interests». Until he was actually asked to put those values ​​in which he had always believed in second place. To create profits, in one of the municipalities, sewage sludge was dumped into the neighboring stream which flowed into the sea after a few kilometres. Later, more than ten years later, there were the first arrests. 

"I didn't want to be the Christian of tomorrow." that's what he kept repeating to himself so as not to get involved. His wife and friends who lived the Gospel with him helped him recover the joy and light of counter-current choices. «My conscience, my education, my ideals, required me to go against these practices». Roberto decided to quit, better to be poor than dishonest. 

He later also had to resign from other positions. He has also had positive experiences regarding the management of purification plants. In one of these, a social cooperative on the coast, he was with two others. He is an engineer, an electrician and a worker with a past as a drug addict, who thanks to this opportunity was able to re-enter the world of work. The results were exceptional, so much so that a laboratory technician who checked had never seen the water so pure, thinking it had been tampered with.

You currently managed a municipal sewage treatment plant and other small private businesses. That technician who didn't believe in such pure water now takes school groups to visit the plants managed by our engineer.

The price of consistency is high. His economic situation has not improved. But he believed in God's love even if it meant making choices against the grain. «This morning I went for a walk on the beach. In front of the spectacle of the sea and the reflections of the sun on the water, I felt the presence of God reassuring me: I am on the right path."