Love Wins everything! - Interview with Claudia Koll

Love Wins everything! - Interview with Claudia Koll by Mauro Harsch

One of the most extraordinary people I have known in recent years is definitely Claudia Koll. A successful actress, she currently supports her artistic activity with an intense voluntary work for children and the suffering. I have had the opportunity to meet her on several occasions, discovering in her a sensitivity, a kindness of mind and a love for God and neighbor decidedly out of the ordinary. In the interview, with involving spontaneity, he talks about his moral and spiritual convictions, about particular life experiences, also revealing some secrets kept in his heart.

Recently there has been a lot of talk about your conversion and your commitment to needy children. What do you want to tell us about it?
I met the Lord at a dramatic moment in my life, in which no man could have helped me; only the Lord, who peers into the depths of the heart, could do it. I cried, and He replied by entering into my heart with a great caress of love; he healed some wounds and forgave some of my sins; he renewed me and put me at the service of His vineyard. I felt like the son of the parable of the prodigal son: welcomed by the father, without being judged. I have discovered a God who is Love and great Mercy. At first I looked for Jesus in the suffering, in volunteering, in hospitals, in AIDS patients and subsequently, following an invitation from the VIS (international non-governmental organization representing Salesian missionaries in the world), I faced great injustices like hunger and poverty. In Africa I saw the face of the Child Jesus who chose to be poor among the poor: I saw many smiling children running, dressed in rags, and embracing and kissing them I thought of the Child Jesus, I saw in them many Child Jesus.

Do you remember any experience of faith lived during your first youth?
In early childhood I grew up with a blind grandmother, who however saw with the eyes of faith. She was very devoted to the Madonna of Pompei and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; thanks to her I breathed a particular "presence" of faith. Later the Lord allowed me to get lost ... Today, however, I understand that God allows loss, and evil, because great good can arise from it. Each "prodigal son" becomes a witness of the love and great mercy of God.

After the conversion, what has actually changed in your life choices, in everyday life?
Conversion is something profound and continuous: it is opening the heart and changing, it is living the Gospel concretely, it is the work of regeneration based on many small daily deaths and rebirths. In my life I try to thank God with many small gestures of love: taking care of children, the poor, overcoming my selfishness ... It is true that there is more joy in giving than in receiving. Sometimes, forgetting ourselves, new horizons open up.

Last summer you went to Medjugorje. What impressions did you bring back?
It was a strong experience that is transforming me and giving new incentives, still in the evolutionary phase. Our Lady played an important role in my conversion; she was really a mom, and I feel like your daughter. In every important appointment I feel you close, and when I need to make up again, the Rosary is always the prayer that brings peace to my heart.

You are a witness of the Catholic faith lived in fullness and joy. What would you like to say to young people who are far from faith and to those who have abandoned Christianity and the Church to perhaps embrace other religions or other philosophies of life?
I would like to tell them that man needs the Transcendent, the presence of the Risen Jesus who is our hope. Compared to other religions we have a God who also has a face; a God who sacrificed his life for us and who teaches us to live fully and get to know us. Experiencing God also means entering into the depths of our hearts, knowing each other, and therefore growing in humanity: this is the great mystery of Jesus Christ, true God and true man. Today, by loving Jesus, I cannot fail to love man, I need man. Being Christian means loving your brother and receiving his love, it means feeling the presence of the Lord through our brothers. Love for Jesus makes us see others with different eyes.

What do you think is the reason why many young people abandon the Church?
Our society does not support us on a spiritual journey, it is a very materialistic society. The yearning for the soul tends upwards, but then in reality the world speaks to us of something else and does not support us in an authentic search for God. Even the Church has its difficulties. In any case, we must not forget that It is the mystical Body of Christ and must therefore be supported, we must remain in the Church. You don't have to identify the person with God: sometimes a person's faults become a reason why you don't believe or stop believing ... This is wrong and unjust.

What is happiness for you?
Joy! The joy of knowing that Jesus exists. And joy comes from feeling loved by God and men, and in reciprocating this love.

The most important values ​​in your life.
Love, love, love ...

What made you want to become an actress?
Immediately after my birth, my mom and I risked dying and, as mentioned before, I was entrusted to my grandmother, who is blind. Later, when she stood in front of the television and listened to the dramas, I told her what I saw. The experience of telling her what was happening, and seeing her face illuminated, generated in me the desire to communicate with people and to give emotions. I think the seed of my artistic vocation is to be found in this experience.

A particularly lively experience among your memories ...
Certainly the greatest experience was that of feeling in my heart the great love of God, which has canceled many of my wounds. In volunteering, I remember meeting an AIDS patient who had lost the faculty of speech and could no longer walk. I spent an entire afternoon with him; he had a high fever and trembled with fear. I held his hand all afternoon; I shared his sufferings with him; I saw the face of Christ in him ... I will never forget those moments.

Future projects. In voluntary work and in artistic life.
I am planning a trip to Angola for VIS. I also continue working with an association that deals with immigrant women in Italy in difficult conditions. I feel called to help those who are weaker: the poor, the suffering, the foreigner. In these years of volunteering with immigrants, I have lived many stories of great poetry. Seeing situations of poverty even within our cities, I discovered people with great moral wounds, culturally not ready to find themselves in difficulty; people who need to regain their dignity, the deepest sense of their existence. Through cinema I would like to tell some of these very touching realities. In December, in Tunisia, the shooting of a new film for RAI will also begin, on the life of Saint Peter.

How do you see the world of television and cinema today?
There are positive elements and I have a lot of hope in the future. I think it is ripe time for something different to be born. I dream of an art that brings light, hope and joy.

In your opinion, what is the mission of an artist?
Certainly that of being a little prophet, of illuminating men's hearts. Today, the evil emphasized by the mass media hurts our soul and our hope. Man also needs to know himself in his own miseries, but he must trust in the Mercy of God, which opens up to hope. We must look at the good that arises even where there is evil: evil cannot be denied, but must be transfigured.

In his Letter to the Artists, the Pope invites the artists to "seek new epiphanies of beauty to make it a gift to the world". Our new movement "Ars Dei" was also born with the aim of rediscovering in art a privileged channel for the transmission of messages and values ​​that contribute to recalling the sacredness of life, the Transcendent, the human mind and heart. universality of Christ. A movement therefore in sharp contrast with contemporary art. Your comment on this. I think beauty is important. A beautiful sunset speaks to us of God and opens our hearts; a nice piece of music makes us feel better. In beauty we meet God. God is beauty, it is love, it is harmony, it is peace. Never as in this period does man need these values. In my opinion, contemporary art is a bit late compared to what the soul of man is looking for, but I think the new millennium will open new horizons. I believe that Ars Dei is truly a new movement and I hope it can flourish as the Pope says.

To conclude, a message, a quote for our readers.
"God loved the world so much that he gave his Only Begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life." (Jn 3-16) Love wins everything!

Thanks Claudia and see you in Switzerland!

Source: "Germogli Magazine" Rome, 4 November 2004