As Silvio Berlusconi grapples with the best crisis the Italian republic has ever seen, an affiliate of his extended family has gone on a long retreat to Medjugorje. Ania Goledzinowska, the Polish squeeze of Paolo Enrico Beretta, the Italian prime minister’s nephew (he’s the boy of Silvio Berlusconi’s late sister, Maria Antonietta), has moved to the town in Bosnia and Herzegovina to lead a life of prayer.
How did you end up in Medjugorje?
The 1st time I was invited by a mate who also paid for the trip. I had a sort of an allergic reaction for monks and the Church. But that first trip changed the course of my life, so much so that for the following 2 years I was not currently able to live serenely, because I realised that I had never been really content in my whole life. What I was living was an illusion, not true happiness. I became depressed. I had a privileged life that I do not liked. Instead , I wanted easy, normal things. One morning I woke up, called a friend and asked him to find me a place to remain in Medjugorje or I would have jumped out of the window. I left Italy with two bags without telling anybody. And here I am.
How long have you been in Medjugorje and when are you going to come back to Italy?
I have been here almost 3 months. In fact my first thought was to come here simply for 1 or 2 days, because on June 25 I should have started a PR job in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, at the billionaire Flavio Briatore’s club. But June twenty-five was also the 30th anniversary of the apparitions in Medjugorje. After 5 days here I ended the contract and have made a decision to remain. I am in a Marian community and I live with monks and nuns.
How do you spend your day?
I waken at 5 in the morning. We climb the mountain Podbrdo to recite a rosary, then we are going down, we have requests, then Holy Mass. Until 12 p.m. we’re employed. I clean the rooms and loos, then I do the ironing, or peel potatoes. We also have a vegetable garden and chickens. After that we recite another rosary. In the afternoon we rest, then at 6 there are other prayers.
You’re spending the summer in a spot of prayer, far enough away from everything and everyone. Don’t you miss Formentera, Sardinia and other places like that?
Definitely not. Many of my old friends can’t comprehend what I’m doing. They don’t know how I can be happy doing what maybe my cleaning woman did before. In fact , I believe That I have never been so contented. I feel a bit like when I was a child, when I was little and I lived with my poor and straightforward family. Everything
I do makes me feel satisfied. I feel loved by God and by those around me, without needing to disguise myself by what I haven’t ever been. I’m sure that people are close to me for who I actually am, not to earn profits. I left everything. I get dressed with the “clothes of Providence”, which often the travellers leave here, because my clothes didn’t slot in Medjugorje. I couldn’t come here wearing Chanel shoes
What was the reaction of your man, Paolo Enrico Beretta?
Initially he was surprised. For nearly two weeks he didn’t know where I was. We met again 4 weeks later, when I returned to Milan to cancel the lease of the house and to sell the auto : I determined to move permanently to Medjugorje. We met, we chatted a lot and he understood my decisions. He told me he respects them and he will always and actually be close to me until I’ll be ready to come back. And he knows very well this can occur in a year as in four. In the meantime, he is about to visit me. Now I do what the Lord wants from me. If the Lord wants me to come back, I shall come back to Italy. But I don’t think this will happen in the future.
In the papers we read that you have chosen chastity. Again, one would wonder whether your boyfriend welcomed your choice.
He’s maybe the sole man who has always respected me. We have had a pure relationship, even though we have known each other for 3 years. Perhaps that’s why our relationship is so deep. I decided to create an association “pure hearts” for people that have chosen to live in purity until wedding, respecting God and themselves. As a sign recognition there are numbered rings for all members.
Why do so many people in the Italian showbusiness world go to Medjugorje?
I don’t know. Some do it for advertising, but there are also those that really need to find solutions. In the final analysis we’re all people, and papers customarily don’t tell stories about regular folks. I suspect that today’s world urges us to find the truth, because we are living in a fake fact.
Where did your story begin?
It’s a long story and I’ve written about it in the book Con occhi di bambina (“Through the eyes of a child”). It starts when I used to be a tiny princess who dreamed about a castle and of her prince, but I found myself kicked out of the enchanted castle when I was four years in age. I had to battle with insincere folks, harassment, abuse, drugs and much else besides.
It’s reported that in 2008, wearing simply a bikini, you came out of a cake donated to prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and sang “Happy birthday” to him. After Medjugorje would you do that again?
After Medjugorje I wouldn’t do many things, but I don’t regret anything. I had to live the good and the bad things of my past so as to give affidavit today you can change, that real life is something else. Jesus came and died for sinners, not for healthy people. I am the first of sinners. I don’t want to lose the privilege of enjoying the mercy of the Lord.
From parties, maybe with cocaine, to Our Woman Do you think that you want to escape from the world?
I have had nothing to do with substances for roughly 6 years. I don’t want to escape from the world, I’m sure that the real battle is out in day-to-day life. But first I have to heal my soul to assist other people, to battle in the battleground for the only actual King, who is God.
From Medjugorje what are you wanting to tell our readers?
3 things : love, excuse and don’t judge. Just as you need to be forgiven, also others have a right to a second chance. Forgive, but don’t do it for others : do it for yourself. You should empty the loathing and the acrimony that you hold in your heart. Only then can God work in you. Otherwise he has nowhere to put the graces that he has reserved. If you make a decision to come to Medjugorje don’t expect to see the sun spinning or other miracles. The genuine miracle is your exit. Our Woman will look after all the rest, writes tagza.com.
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