Humour to spread the Gospel

The experience of Cesare Cesarini, a focolarino who spreads the Gospel by the new way of ‘extreme evangelization’.

Cesare’s dream has always been to give God to others as the ideal of life. When he realized that schools were a privileged place for doing this, he thought he would add his specialism to the curriculum: humour. He first tried his method in Cagliari, Sardinia, in a primary school in a run-down area where, out of a class of 25 children, 12 fathers were in prison. He said, ‘With the head teacher’s agreement I visited classes and offered to teach them a method: humour applied to school subjects, building dialogue, maintaining discipline, bodily care, social behaviour, world awareness, coping with difficulty, appreciating beauty and building peace.’ After that Cesare visited a large number of schools, offering his innovative teaching to many regions of Italy.

Following that he carried on his mission when he went to live in the focolare in Albania where in the space of ten years he met and inspired with his message about 25,000 people, in courses of catechists, groups of young people, professional schools, kindergartens and parents’ groups. His brilliance and the effectiveness of his applied humour were such that he even ran a course on street evangelization for the Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Cesare has a profound knowledge of the Bible, and he even offers a Master’s course in the Song of Songs which has been a great success among both seminarians and young married couples. Some of the feedback: ‘Behind your apparent improvisation there is tremendous research, tremendous work, tremendous passion, tremendous attention for each person,’ ‘You have a deep love for the Bible, (you quote it from memory) every artistic expression of yours is drawn from a relationship with the Word.’

Besides working with schools and running training courses, Cesare has created a theatrical show where his ‘applied humour for extreme evangelization’ aims at honouring inner beauty and the priceless value of each person. In the show he observes life with care and sympathy, picking up on educational points so as to learn how to face things, whether happy or sad, in a balanced way and with Gospel wisdom. Cesare likes to call himself an ‘Actor-Soul’ who, using the instruments of art, humour and culture, as well as a wide range of deeply human life-experiences, produces a two-hour show characterized by fun and contemplation.





  1. Marisa

    Che bello! È finalmente arrivato! Ci voleva! Non si sorride più e ci voleva qualcuno che ricominciasse a far sorridere… Sul serio! Quando arriva nel mondo del lavoro qualcuno come lui? Qui in Veneto quando? Vogliamo imparare al più presto! Grazie, marisa.

  2. Daniela Antolini

    Mi piace un mondo…imparare a sfruttare ognuno la propria strada per ‘dare’il proprio contributo ad un mondo più ‘disteso’…
    Buon lavoro a tutti noi! Daniela

  3. Vittorio

    Cesare sei davvero un grande! Sono stato testimone della bellezza del tuo “spettacolo”. Che bello scoprire il vangelo sorridendo.Ciao Cesare

  4. Cláudia Herrero Martins Menegassi

    Ho conosciuto lui a Loppiano nel 2000 mentre eravamo in preparazione per il genfest. È un tipo! Un abbraccio, Cesare.

    • Maria Aurora Auletta

      Pochi come lui hanno il dono di toccare l’anima e farti sentire UNO …che belle esperienze in classe con i bambini, in famiglia, con gli amici…..GRAZIE CESARE, per noi continui ad essere ARCOBALENO