La Nuvola Auditorium is packed with young people: the band on stage sings songs about commitment, unity and the joy of being together. They transmit energy and the audience responds enthusiastically. But Global Friendship is more than just music. The audience listens attentively when Andrea Riccardi, who founded the Community when he was about the same age as many of them, takes the floor.
‘Global Friendship,’ says Riccardi, ‘is not an event, but an evangelical and human ideal. We must rescue this generation from loneliness and build bonds that are not constraints but liberation. Many people want peace, and you have the answer: global friendship. You young people have a power stronger than money: life. You can achieve true globalisation, that of the Spirit.’
Young people from Ukraine, France, Belgium, Italy, but also from various Latin American countries talk together. After the plenary assembly, they continue in language groups. And in the evening, they all gather at the Pantheon for a flash mob to publicly reaffirm their dream and their commitment to peace.
On Saturday, they will pass through the Holy Door. The congress will conclude with a Eucharistic liturgy in the square of Santa Maria in Trastevere in the evening (live webcast on this site).
