2013-09-10 15:19:03

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:

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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








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