The Courage to Hope: St Egidio International Peace Meeting
(Vatican Radio) The Catholic lay community of St Egidio will be holding its annual
international, interfaith meeting in Rome from September 29th to October
1st. The encounter draws inspiration from Pope John Paul’s first interreligious
day of prayer for peace in Assisi back in 1986 and brings together political and religious
leaders from all continents and all the world’s major faith traditions. This year
the theme of the meeting is ‘The Courage to Hope’ as Philippa Hitchen reports:
Listen:
The spirit
of Assisi will be blowing through the streets of Rome as representatives of all the
main religious traditions meet together to share experiences, discuss dialogue initiatives
and above all to pray for peace among peoples and nations. At a press conference
on Tuesday members of the St Egidio community revealed details of the programme for
the three day event, which opens with an ecumenical service at the Basilica of St
Paul Outside the Walls and concludes with the signing of an appeal for peace in the
central Piazza del Campidoglio. As usual, this 27th annual encounter
will feature numerous panel discussions on issues such as poverty and good governance,
religious terrorism and violence against women, the aged and the family, as well as
a focus on specific peace initiatives in different parts of the globe. For the first
time there will also be a panel discussion inside Rome’s Rebibbia jail, with prisoners
sharing their views on peace and conflict resolution. Clearly the current conflict
in Syria will be under the spotlight, as well as the role of religions in supporting
the struggle for peace throughout the volatile Middle East region. The community of
St Egidio is very encouraged by Pope Francis’ recent prayer vigil for peace in Syria
and by his appeal to young people in particular to never lose ‘The Courage to Hope’.
Alberto Quattrucci is the community’s general secretary charged with organising the
annual encounter..
“It’s very important because we’re convinced that together
with the very sad signs of war and conflict in the world, there are also a lot of
lights of peace…..new initiatives, especially in the last few days with the prayer
with the Holy Father, with the release of the journalist (Domenico) Quirico….some
good signs yesterday in St Egidio was signed an agreement for Central Africa and then
some discussion about Syria, now they are probably going on the theme of dialogue
instead of the theme of military attack – and this is a very good sign”
Pope
Francis himself met last week with leaders of the St Egidio community to give his
input into this interreligious encounter – he’ll also be meeting with all the participants
on the final day of the gathering, Tuesday October 1st