First of all, a clarification/request: the events I will tell are the result of my memory and have a highly personal slant. Maybe I don't have the correct facts and dates. Maybe I'll omit some names.  I will purposely avoid mentioning unpleasant episodes except when absolutely necessary, sticking to what "good" was done or tried to be done in those years.

I will appreciate those who want to correct me if there are errors (for sure) in my reconstruction. Furthermore, if anyone has photos or other documentation relating to the facts I am telling, please contact me because I would like to collect them and preserve them.

The 70s began on the revolutionary wave of '68, and on the conquests of '69. Both events were the drivers of a renewed desire to change and open up to new horizons. Something was starting to move in Moschiano too.

Recently, a new Parish Priest had come to the Parish of Capomoschiano, practically after years of abandonment (if I remember correctly, the Parish Priest at the time only came on Sundays to say Mass and was almost never seen): Don Peppino Manfredi. Fresh from the Carmine Parish in Nola he was full of enthusiasm. Almost immediately he understood that he had to roll up his sleeves and act. Especially with young people. With meetings, parties and other initiatives he put together a very united and active youth group. Who among my 60-70 year old friends doesn't remember the renewed custom of the "tuocco" at the end of the year to be brought to them before the New Year's Eve party in the hall (Sacristy) of the Parish in Capomoschiano?

Don Salvatore meanwhile, after the interventions on the Sanctuary in the early 1960s which had cost so much effort (Link to 60s photo gallery) understood that to make devotion to Our Lady of Charity more accessible to everyone and facilitate not only the cult but also the maintenance works, it was necessary to build a road that led to the Sanctuary. This had always been an ancient dream of the people of Moschiano. In fact, a rough road starting from Pistiello down to the Croce district was started in the early 1960s but was then abandoned perhaps due to lack of funds. A road would have meant not only no longer having to walk to the Sanctuary or carry the material to maintain it by hand or with donkeys, but it would also have been a blessing for the farmers who had their properties up the Cantaro, La Carita , La Serra and La Cerreta. Everything would have been easier. There was then talk of extending it as far as Monteforte.  With the help of the local authorities and his personal acquaintances, this dream finally came true and the road, even if amidst many discords (it seemed like reliving G. Verga's novel “The Stuff”) and some fatal episodes, was inaugurated in 1970.

And then there was Sister Pia. I'm not sure how she arrived in Moschiano from the convent of the Sisters of Charity of Lauro. Surely one day we found her there (often together with Sister Laura) and between the end of the 1960s until her death she took care of our Parishes and guided and helped raise hundreds of children. Always in the shadows, with simple tools and ideas but with a lot of patience and a lot of love. Hers are the first "Mother's Days" (see photo from 1969) and the various celebrations on the occasion of the anniversaries of the ordinations of parish priests (I still have the "speeches" of greetings from some of them) or of pastoral visits or on other occasions such as the Priestly ordination of Don Andrea Pesapane. Often at the parties there were dance recitals prepared by Maria Luisa Bossone di Lauro, a professional dancer, photo 1972. Just as for us young men, a group of very skilled and close-knit girls was forming around Sister Pia (photo 1972).

In the main parish we also revitalized the Catholic Action group (see photo from 1973) in all its sections: Children (ACR), Youth and Adults. We had perhaps more than 50 members.

In December '70 the songwriter Lucio Battisti gave us that poem which is "Emotions"

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