Chiesa di Santa Maria a Settevile

The parish was established, as attested by the plaque placed at the foot of the Crucifix in the church, on July 7, 1973. Someone wonders perplexed: but the little church already existed; the sacraments were given and the priests had been resident for years. It is true. In fact, Don Carlo Imarisio together with Don Giancarlo Casalone, members of a Piedmontese congregation originally from Casalmonferrato, arrived here in October 1969. They received from the then vicar of Rome, Card. Dell'Acqua, a vast area that was still sparsely populated and which legally belonged to the parish of Settecamini. Here it is necessary to take a step back. It should be noted that the entire territory had belonged to the parish of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura for centuries. The area was vast but sparsely populated. There were farmhouses scattered here and there. Religious service was guaranteed by priests from colleges and congregations in Rome, who celebrated Mass on Sundays in private chapels attached to villas and farmhouses. Everything changed after the First World War. The veterans were assigned the Settecamini area, equipped with council houses and a church that immediately became a parish with the title of S. Maria dell'Olivo. From then on, our area also passed from being dependent on S. Lorenzo to that of Settecamini. Until 1969 and the arrival of Don Carlo and Don Giancarlo. In that autumn, the entire area that includes Case Rosse, Setteville, Setteville Nord and Marco Simone became the vice parish of Settecamini. Baptisms were administered here, but the registers were over there. In the meantime, construction, both legal and illegal, was experiencing a period of great growth, especially on the land in the area, so that the number of inhabitants increased; a new temporary headquarters is purchased in the square (it will last thirty years) and the entire area becomes an independent parish, precisely on July 7, 1973. The first parish priest is Don Carlo Imarisio, who will govern it until September 1995. Subsequently, the impetuous growth of the population and the vastness of the territory advise the vicariate to dismember. So Case rosse becomes an independent parish in 1982 and the consortia of Setteville Nord and Marco Simone are reunited in a parish in 1989. Don Carlo remains parish priest here in Setteville and his great, very justified, concern becomes the new church to be built to replace that sort of temporary garage that is in the square. But the construction of a new place of worship, for various reasons, especially economic, is not an easy undertaking and certainly not a hasty one. So Don Carlo dies on September 28, 1995 without being able to see the start of the work. In truth, the acquisition of the land was also missing. The new parish priest, called to replace Don Carlo, immediately realized the problem. There was a lack of living space while the faithful increased. Then a plan was studied to excavate the land to create a hall with steps... but these were palliatives, economically expensive and with very dubious aesthetic results. Then 1998 became decisive. In no time at all the land was found and all the difficulties were overcome, which would deserve a special explanatory sheet. The construction site began. But a major obstacle immediately arose when the ancient Via Tiburtina Cornicolana was found almost 3 meters below ground level. In similar cases in Rome other churches suspended work for several years. Thanks to the providential mediation of the archaeologist Dr. Eugenio Moscetti, everything was resolved within a month. The protection of the road was studied; the solution of the crypt-museum was invented and the work resumed, so that on Christmas night 1999, the beginning of the Jubilee, the first Holy Mass could be celebrated there. Years of completion followed: in the liturgical furnishings, in the organization of another thousand square meters to have a small parking lot and a garden for children.... All this, however, concerns the external structure, precious, even indispensable, but which does not constitute the soul of the parish. It lies in the benefits that the Lord grants to those gathered in his Name. Celebrating the anniversary of the parish means precisely this: recovering the memory of God and his benefits towards the community. No one, starting with the parish priest, has given more than he has received. There is no comparison, in fact, between what has been given to us here and what has been given to us: so much consolation, new strength, repeated forgiveness, support in marriage, discernment in suffering and wisdom in decisions, children who would never have been born and, finally, the happy death of many parishioners.