A portrait of unconventional faith in Florence's most challenging neighborhood
Padre Santoro is a "worker priest" who celebrates mass in a prefab building in Le Piagge, one of Florence's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. He has embraced a countercurrent idea of Church: poor, humble, and open to all - a choice he has paid for personally.
This editorial assignment for Ful Magazine #57 explores the life and community of a priest who chose to become "a piece of bread within humanity," documenting his radical approach to faith and service in the periphery of Florence, where he has founded a grassroots community that serves as a beacon of humanity.
"Why I became a priest, even today I couldn't explain rationally. It was an anarchic gesture."
This assignment required documenting not just a person, but a philosophy of faith in action. Padre Santoro represents a radical departure from traditional religious practice - celebrating mass in a simple prefab, where congregants sit on chairs and the priest comes to them for communion.
In Florence's Le Piagge neighborhood, he has created what he calls a "low-threshold presidium of humanity" - a grassroots community that embodies his vision of a Church that is poor, humble, and open to all. The photography captures the essence of this unconventional ministry and the community it has fostered.
"I would like the Piagge Community to continue to exist even without me and become more and more a grain of dust inside a perverse mechanism: a presidium of humanity, a non-place place."