Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former nuncio to the United States, has spoken in support of a family living an off-grid lifestyle in Italy.
The father, former professional chef and British national Nathan Trevallion, and Catherine Birmingham, a 45-year-old Australian life coach and former equestrian trainer, have been living in a patch of woodland in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. They have chosen to raise their children, an eight-year-old and six-year-old twins, away from modern distractions and schooling.
Explaining the decision to raise their children in the woodland, the mother said: “It is so we have the time to be here for them and so that we are not stressed … and that we are able to be present.”
However, despite the parents’ intentions and their legal rights, a court order has now placed the children in a home with limited parental contact.
Initial concern was raised by the Italian state in September 2024, when all five members of the family were hospitalised after eating wild mushrooms. After that incident, social services and law enforcement visited the property, and the family implemented the changes that had been requested.
“The family unit lives in housing hardship as the building has not been declared habitable,” the order states. “The members of the Trevallion family have no social interaction, no fixed income, the home has no toilet facilities, and the children do not attend school. The order is based on the risk of violating the right to social life. In consideration of the serious and harmful violations of the children’s rights to physical and mental integrity, the parents should be suspended from parental responsibility.”
It is understood that the family has an outdoor compostable toilet and draws water from a well on the property.
In a post on X written after the court order was announced, Archbishop Viganò stated: “In expressing my full support for the ‘Forest Family’, I recall the immortal words of Pius XI, which should ring out as a condemnation for all those who have made themselves responsible for the gravest violations of the most elementary principles of civilisation and humanity:
‘The family […] holds directly from the Creator the mission and therefore the right to educate its offspring, an inalienable right because inseparably linked to the strict obligation, a right prior to any right of civil society and the State, and therefore inviolable by any earthly power.’”
The situation has attracted significant attention across Italy and beyond, with tens of thousands signing an online petition calling for the parents to be reunited with their children.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her deputy Matteo Salvini have also spoken out against the court’s decision.
Speaking “as a father and a bewildered and worried parent”, Salvini said his aim was “to reunite this family”. He added that the government intended to introduce a bill that would prevent children being removed from their parents except in “the most severe cases” involving abuse.
Psychiatrist Tonino Cantelmi, who has been assisting the family, has announced that an appeal against the court’s decision is being launched.
