A lively assembly at the Nuvola in EUR, with simultaneous translation into 11 languages, launched the ‘Global Friendship Peace Hope’ international conference yesterday, promoted by the Youth for Peace of the Community of Sant’Egidio. High school and university students from 12 European countries gathered in Rome during the Jubilee of Hope, with a numerous delegation from Ukraine – 120 young men and women – and representatives also from Africa, Latin America and Asia.
In his opening speech, the president of the Community, Marco Impagliazzo, asked: ‘What can young people do in today's world? What is their strength? There is an atmosphere of resignation and cynicism surrounding young people. It is a heavy atmosphere, polluted by harsh judgements, an atmosphere that crushes dreams and hopes’.
Faced with such great evil, ‘ which drives people to resignation and irrelevance ’, the president of the Community invited young people ‘ to invest in fraternity, gratuitousness and love, because bonds are not a constraint but a liberation that connects us to the rest of the world ’. Remembering the words of Floribert Bwana Chui, the young man from the Community of Sant'Egidio in Goma, Congo, martyred in 2007 for opposing an attempt at corruption and recently beatified, Marco Impagliazzo said: 'When faced with violence, oblivion, and the forgetfulness of others, there is always another way. That of hope, the foundation of every positive change in the world.'
The conference will continue this morning with a meeting with the founder of the Community, Andrea Riccardi, and in the afternoon with focus groups on various topics, from ecology to migration, from poverty to peace. There is great anticipation for the Flash Mob for Peace in Piazza del Pantheon, starting at 6.30 p.m., with testimonies on the work for peace and resistance to violence in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Latin America.
Tomorrow, there will be the passing of the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica, followed by cultural visits to the city, with ten different historical and artistic itineraries, the Eucharistic liturgy and the celebration in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere.
