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Inspired, Guetti took up study of the issues, convinced that what was needed foremost was the creation of the Casse Rurali (access to credit was of primary concern) and then the Famiglie Cooperative. But events obliged him to invert this order. The first was a natural catastrophe which struck all of western Trentino on 21-22 May, 1887. In his remarks, Don Lorenzo described hail, snow, ice, storms of all sort all at once a total disaster! So many dreams destroyed in an instant! Mulberry trees, grapevines, nut trees, other fruit trees reduced to nothing, burnt, dried up. It breaks your heart just to set foot outside these poor homes, the desolation is total. By the end of May everything was lost and the specter of absolute misery and starvation appeared inevitable to the beaten-down farmers in the Giudicarie valley.

hat rendered Don Lorenzo Guetti (1847 1898) immortal in Trentino history was the creation of the co-operative system, that is, the Casse Rurali and the Famiglie Cooperative, both of which became social and economic entities that made an enormous contribution to the well-being and dignity of the people in our region. Don Guettis creations brought about a sort of rebirth for our valleys and villages, a veritable springtime in social and economic terms, giving hope and a future for Trentini people; all because a simple country priest was able to truly comprehend the needs of his fellow Trentini. He had dedicated himself to studying possible solutions to the agrarian crisis of the time, trying to identify possible strategies for surviving the crisis. He then set out with boundless determination to build the co-operative networks that still exist today. It could be argued that Don Guetti didnt really invent anything but merely applied to Trentino what had already been done in England, Germany and the Austrian empire (which our territory was part of at the time). It can also be said that the time was right in the last decades of the 1800`s. In Austria until 1773 the government had issued laws that granted economic assistance for the development of co-operative credit initiatives. In Trentino the provincial agricultural council declared its willingness to support such activities. Indeed, in 1883 Don Silvio Lorenzoni, a priest from the Val di Non, issued a loud call for help from the provincial agricultural council, essentially begging someone to take the reins and the accompanying responsibility and move ahead with these direly needed social and economic networks.

The Cooperative Movement

The government at Innsbruck allotted 700 florins to be distributed among the most desperate. But how could one rank degrees of absolute poverty and starvation? Don Lorenzo suggested using the money to buy corn meal that could be distributed to the farmers at a price lower than local commercial rates. The endeavour was a success and led to the founding of the first co-operative consortium in Villa di Bleggio in 1890. In truth there is another factor that pushed Don Lorenzo into action: a request from his compaesani of Quadra to introduce also in Trentino emergency loans mutue di pronto soccorso, which they had already had experience with in Piedmont at the time they emigrated to Italy in search of work Naturally the business community tried to spread rumors of the sort that the subsidies for the poor people end up on the priests plates, but the common people understood who was on their side.

Things were even more complicated for the Casse Rurali. Don Guetti wrote: Now the credit agencies must continue their work (. . .). No sooner does one generous person take up an initiative that can be truly helpful to others than the campaign to discredit him with lies and slander starts . . .. Don Guetti was nonetheless convinced that the Casse Rurali should be the first priority of every community so that everyone can have access to funds for basic needs; he thus struggled to overcome every hurdle that was thrown down to block him, but inspired by the system set up by Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, a German layperson working in the spirit of the gospel, Don Guetti founded the first Cassa Rurale of his village, Quadra, in July 1892. In his words it was a universal innovation for Trentino. The joyful revolution had been accomplished. For Don Guetti this also represented the message of the gospel put into practice; the words in the Acts of the Apostles There is more joy in giving than in receiving (Acts 20:35) had been brought to life. Upon the death of the apostle of cooperation in Trentino in 1898, there were 51 Casse Rurali in Trentino and the family co-operatives numbered 107. Only six and eight years after their respective beginnings, a network designed to improve the wellbeing and to build on the hopes and dreams of residents had been established throughout the territory. Written by Don Marcello Farina