FATHER MIMMO IERVOLINO

Evangelising through music


Priest and Singer
By Pasquale Lubrano

Interview with Mimmo Iervolino, a priest working in one of the most difficult areas in Pomigliano D'Arco near Naples. He uses the guitar and songs as instruments to get across his message.

The most moving moment came for him in Sanremo in 1999 when he sang in the Ariston theatre. His music ranges widely and includes melody, rap and Christian dance music. Many young people follow his vast repertoire. His dream is to create "a place for God" in today's light music. Let's try to understand how.

Father Mimmo, music and religion - how do they mix? "Music has always been present in my life ever since I was a child. You find it in creation, in the flowing of a river, in the wind that blows through the leaves, within yourself where you feel part of an everything that is larger than you and where you discover you are a fragment that can express that everything. So there's no conflict between music and religiosity. To make music and enrich the works of the immensity that envelops you is all one reality. It's one song".

The people you live and work with are simple people who live a life that often is not easy. Some of the young people are out of work or often victims of drugs or organised crime. How do they react to your vocation that is both religious and artistic? "Both the adults and young people are happy, at least those I have met so far! A song is a vehicle that can give something. It encloses fragments of life, truth, joy and suffering. It's an immediate way to give what you are experiencing, seeing, feeling. Young people in particular are in tune with "feeling" because they are at that stage in life where they are discovering their senses and so songs can say a lot. Once a young man said to me at a concert: "God works in an hour". A thousand homilies would never have opened his heart the way those songs did."

You like to cite a phrase of Vaclav Havel's: "Music cannot change the world, only people can do so, but music can change people". "I am convinced of this. A song can make you change direction; it can arouse new sentiments, help you to take important decisions. I continue to organise concerts because I see considerable "spiritual returns". Concerts break the monotony of our sacristies. At concerts you draw close to many people, you meet new people with great needs and new relationships are established. From these relationships a new reality can be built up in the parish, in society and in the world".

Recently you have achieved national success. The great lyricist Mogol has expressed interest in your songs and the Paoline editing company has published your CD entitled "Buonenuove". How did this CD come about? "It's a collection of fourteen songs born from life, from contact with people and from my relationship with God. Mogol particularly liked one of these songs "Heaven exists" and he wanted to give it an award as the best text at the Ancona song contest. Then the song "Time that returns" came third in a contest of Marian songs organised by the diocese of Terni under the artistic direction of Eugenio Bennato. The song "Together with you" was chosen by Giosy Cento and Piergiorgio Bussani for the "Christian Sanremo" in which I took part together with Gen Rosso and Gen Verde. The whole preparation of the CD was a great experience. The Paoline editing company have really focussed in on it. Certainly, it's been an experience that cost time, imagination as well as involved building bridges between Rome and Naples and between the "Lunatico" and "Intelsoft" studios. Great musicians gave me their invaluable help. I hope the CD will reach a vast audience.

Have you anything else in the pipeline? "Yes. Another work called "Jesus on line" will come out soon. It's a collection of 6 "Christian dance" songs with an interactive track that opens by inserting the CD into the computer. You'll find the texts of the songs on this track with the chords written in so that people can sing them accompanied by guitar. There are also commentaries that explain the meaning of the texts. There'll also be videos… Ultimately it will be possible to connect and interact via internet".

What does "Christian dance" mean? The kind of music I have in the songs in the new CD is disco-tech "dance" music. It's the musical language nearest to young people, especially the very young. But it'll be a Christian dance in the sense that the background to the texts is the Gospel and values… We experimented on this and last January "Jesus on line" was born. Then a journalist who works for Rai 2 heard it and he put it on the Kataweb Video, the most famous portal in Italy, for ten days. People liked it and soon I found myself composing more music like it…"

If you could look back for a moment and think about your music as it was years ago compared to what you compose today, is there a difference? "I was born with music within me and it came out in me before God brought me to understand what he wanted of me. After that God took the first place in my life and since nature clothed by grace is ennobled my music took on a new shape. So today giving God through music is something that is born from my life, it's a way of "proclaiming". Of course I still have to clarify just how to reconcile being a priest and a singer especially when I realise that my parish is the world! But I read anything that happens in this perspective - God is love and he loves me immensely and I want to remain in this love as I am and as I can be".

I know that you share a particular experience of life with other priests. You share your goods together, your pastoral projects, and you live a common life together in the same house. Is there a relationship between this experience and your artistic commitment? "Yes, there's a very close relationship. I am convinced that a priest is credible to the degree in which his word is witnessed to by a life lived according to Jesus' New Commandment of mutual love. This new relationship with other priests with whom I share my economy, my house, my choices, all of this helps me very much to remain faithful to my calling. Together we decided that I should cultivate my artistic talent. And I check out every idea with them. Even if the others are artists I feel that my art must filter through their sensibility so that my songs aren't simply a fruit of a talent but something more - an expression of this experience of life that we bring forward together. They are the first to hear my songs and they suggest changes!"

When did this experience begin? "I entered the seminary when I was 21 years old at a time when I was beginning to work as an electrical technician. I was in a music group and we used to travel around. Then came this mysterious but strong calling from Jesus to follow him and leave everything for God. In the seminary I met Fr. Peppino Gambardella, a priest whose life witness struck me. I felt there was something special in his life. He spoke to me about the spirituality of the Focolare. I wanted to share this way of life with him. I felt my calling became stronger in this new commitment to live out the Gospel".

This commitment to live out the gospel is to be seen in your songs. It's something that makes them an instrument of evangelisation. "A song is not a Verdi Opera, but a simple and effective means. The language of the Gospel is simple. In order to express himself and give himself to the world Jesus choose an extremely simple Word. But that Word is the only one that transforms your life and makes you pass "from death to life". I am convinced that the songs will be effective because of this commitment to live the Word. If they express life they are really effective…and so evangelisation happens in a new way".

Back