Holy See to participate with Pavillion at Expo Milan 2015
(VIS) – This morning in the Holy See Press Office the protocol was presented for the
participation of the Holy See at Expo Milan 2015. The general theme of the event will
be “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, Commissioner
General for the Holy See for Expo Milan 2015, and Giuseppe Sala, Sole Commissioner
Delegate of the Italian Government for Expo Milan 2015, signed the Protocol this morning
in the Sala Regia of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, and spoke at the press conference.
Expo Milan 2015 will begin on 1 May 2015 and will continue until 31 October;
140 countries will participate with their respective pavilions. The theme of the Holy
See's pavilion will be “Not by bread alone”, and aims to “highlight, above all, the
inner, religious and cultural dimension that affects both the person and his relationships
at all levels. Inner nourishment is just as necessary as that which responds to more
immediate needs”.
From the universal value of sharing and solidarity to the
protection of the Earth's resources that must not be squandered or plundered, the
Holy See's pavilion will promote profound reflection on the concept of “nourishment”,
and will do so by presenting four areas.
The first is a garden to preserve,
which relates to the protection of Creation, with all its resources, a gift given
by the Creator to all humanity, and a patrimony that must not be wasted, plundered
or destroyed. The second will be food to share; the Gospel account of the multiplication
of bread will provide the guiding image and will underline the universal value of
sharing and solidarity, expressed in the Christian context of the many institutions
that have implemented this commandment of brotherly love. The third is a meal that
educates, and emphasizes that education is fundamental for forming young generations
in the context of a culture of human relations focused on the essentials and not on
consumerist waste (of both goods and human beings); and the fourth is bread that makes
God present in the world, based on the typically religious and Christian dimension
of the Eucharist, the Word and Bread of life, the source and culmination of all Christian
existence.