Living In Solidarity With the Poor: Fanchette and Vincent Fanelli talk with Sister Bernie Kenny (left), another Clintwood parishioner involved in fulltime outreach to this mission area.

Vincent and Fanchette Fanelli, as longtime members of the Fourth World Movement Volunteers Corps, choose to live in solidarity with the poor. In 1995 they moved into a “fix-it-up” house in McClure, Va., and became members of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Glenmary’s mission in Clintwood.

The Fourth World Movement, with volunteers currently in 20 countries, was started in 1957 by a French priest who worked with homeless families outside of Paris. He sounded a call for help from others who, like him, would live with the poor and work in solidarity with them to overcome persistent poverty. That is what the Fanellis are doing in Southwest Virginia.

“Our presence is a sign of our investment in the community,” Fanchette explains “It’s very important how you relate to people, how you respond and show compassion.”

The term “Fourth World” refers not to a geographic region but to the social space the poor occupy—a place excluded from the mainstream. In that sense, the Fourth World exists wherever people experience no voice, no choice—even in developed countries like the United States.

When the Fanellis arrived they found that few people in this area of Virginia understood the Internet or the potential of computer literacy for rural development. So Vincent started introductory computer classes at the nearby Binns-Counts Community Center that eventually involved over 500 people.

“Fourth World volunteers have been very important for the outreach of our Glenmary mission,” says Glenmary Father Bob Rademacher, the former pastor of St. Joseph who now serves as its sacramental minister. Father Bob has served on the national Fourth World board for eight years.

“Listen to what people say, look and observe how they live, and begin projects with the people themselves”—that is the way Vincent summarizes the Fourth World Movement’s approach. Self-worth grows from the humblest project when people link in partnership with other local communities in creative ways.

That’s why Vincent and Fanchette arranged to display the touring exhibit “Patchwork of Our Lives” in the regional public library to symbolize the link between the persistently poor of Southwest Virginia and throughout the world.

The quilt featured in the exhibit is made from special pieces of cloth from hundreds of families in places like the barrios of Central America, small villages in Africa and the slums of Bangkok. The display also contains 25 framed quotes detailing the stories of some selected pieces of cloth, such as the red cloth from a refuse dump used for a child’s doll blanket.

The exhibit proved so popular that Fanchette and Vincent are proposing a parallel Appalachian quilt. They are placing collection boxes in public places to gather cloth and stories from local mountain people for a quilt that eventually will tour the world.

Vincent and Fanchette are also building a Learning Co-op on Reedy Ridge, about six miles outside of Clintwood, as a place for a computer center and meeting room. This project, Vincent says enthusiastically, “represents a partnership with local people and others—in the spirit of exchange for knowledge, skills and culture.”

No wonder Father Bob sees the Fanellis, who have committed to live and work among the poor of Appalachia on a longterm basis, as a plus to this Glenmary mission area.

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