Giovanni Ramonda has been President of the Pope John XXIII Community Association since 13 January 2008. He is the one who has inherited the legacy of Father Benzi.

Giovanni was born in Fossano, in the Italian province of Cuneo, in 1960. His father was a manual worker and his mother a housewife.
Giovanni is the seventh child of the family and he relates how it was his parents who instilled in him his love for the family and for the Lord. “I owe them everything. They taught me how good it is to choose to be family, to earn our daily bread honestly, with some sacrifice but also with optimism, with faith in the God and in His Providence and to read events in the light of faith”.

He arrived at the Community as a conscientious objector at only 18 years of age because “serving my homeland though civilian service seemed much more consistent with the teachings of the Gospel. At that time I was also delving into the thinking of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Giorgio la Pira and Lanza del Vasto. But, as I discovered, the true champion of nonviolence is Jesus Christ. I met a priest, Father Mino, who told me about this Community.
To find out about it I spent a week in Rimini during the Christmas holiday where I was able to meet Father Benzi who immediately suggested I enter the family home in Coriano”.

At the age of  20 he had already chosen his calling, to become the father of a family home. All the while he continued his studies, gaining a degree in education and then qualified as a teacher of religious studies.
He has been happily married to Tiziana for 28 years and he lives with their nine children, both natural and welcomed in, in the family home in Sant’Albano Stura.

Led by Giovanni Ramonda, the Community is “full of life, commitment and a sense of responsibility, with a desire to be open to new callings and new projects. This is a time of grace in which the Holy Spirit visits us and also because, from his place in Heaven, Father Benzi is still working for us.