Albino Aragno has overseen Comunita Cenacolo America for 20 years, helping young men and women who are desperately trapped in addiction to find hope and new life through encountering the mercy of God. Growing up in Italy, Albino began using drugs with friends and soon became addicted.  After 15 years of addiction, he entered Comunita Cenacolo, where he found the peace and joy of a life centered on the forgiveness and mercy of Jesus.            

In 1993, Bishop Robert Baker of Birmingham, Alabama—then “Father Baker”—had been searching for something within the Church in the USA to help people with addictions.  He wanted it to be centered on the Eucharist and the Blessed Mother. Finding nothing like this in the US, he traveled to Italy, where there are several Communities to help addicts, founded by priests and nuns.  Father Baker sought advice from a priest friend, who was working at the Vatican.  This priest pointed him toward Mother Elvira’s Comunita Cenacolo. He explained to him that prayer and conversion are central in Cenacolo. Mass, Confession, the rosary, and adoration are foundations of Cenacolo. The priest explained that they were options, if present, in the other Communities. With this advice, then Fr. Baker visited Cenacolo and asked Mother Elvira to open a house in St. Augustine, Florida. Mother Elvira sent Albino with the regular team of 7 young men to open the first Community house in the Americas in 1993.

Since that time, Mother Elvira received many requests to open houses for young men in central and South America.  She also discerned the need for mission houses for neglected, abused, and abandoned children. Mother Elvira sent Albino to visit, explore, and assess. Now Comunita Cenacolo has houses in the Americas: 3 in Peru, 1 in Mexico, 1 in Costa Rica, 4 in Brazil, and 4 in Argentina.  Some of these are houses for young men and others are mission houses for newborn babies-17 years old. Three more houses have opened in the USA: 1 for young women in St. Augustine, 1 for young men in St. Augustine, and 1 for young men in Hanceville, Alabama near the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Albino married his wife Joyce in 1998. Joyce was one of many people involved with Bishop Robert Baker in the community's early years. She helps with the young men and women in Community, their parents, Community retreats, the regional Servants of Hope throughout the USA, the Sons and Daughters (Cenacolo members who have exited and now live outside the Community), and the ongoing needs of Community life.

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