Interview to Marco Impagliazzo, president of the Communiyt of Sant'Egidio, on the Catholic magazine Zenith . Here an abstract. To read the full article go to
From the hovels of the peripheries of Rome, at the end of the 60s, to Africa, Asia, and America, taking everywhere the passion for the three “Ps,” as Pope Francis once said: prayer, poverty and peace, this is the story of Sant’Egidio Community, which in 2018 is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
In the burning atmosphere of the youth protests, among the powerful ferments of novelties that were shaking the Church designed by Vatican Council II, the eighteen-year-old Andrea Riccardi gathered around him a group of high-school students to pray, to listen to the Bible, to lead an after-school program for poor children in the southern outskirts of Rome.
The Community then took the name “Sant’Egidio,” the Saint after whom the premises were named, which became the headquarters of the Community, in the popular neighborhood of Trastevere. Then the Holy See recognized the Community, in 1986, as an international Association of lay faithful. Today its close to 60,000 members are scattered in 70 countries.
The first communal work is prayer and the reading of Sacred Scripture; then communication of the Gospel and, especially, service to the poor, wherever a small Community was present and active. (Continue)
