"Old age is no time to give up and lower the sails, but a season of enduring fruitfulness: a new mission awaits us and bids us look to the future." Pope Francis' words offered the backdrop to a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Akita shrine. It was organised by the Community of Jakarta for the elderly of St. Anne's Institute on the occasion of the National Day of the Elderly. An eventful day that allowed some 80 elderly people to get out of the institution, participate in the liturgy - rarely celebrated in the nursing home - and enjoy being together with their friends.
Friendship with the elderly, together with concrete signs of solidarity with countries at war, were some of the central themes of the 'Rainbow State Party', an event attended by almost 500 children from Schools of Peace and a number of schools in the Indonesian capital.
"We are friends of the elderly, because it is not right that they are always alone. We are friends of those children who are called 'different', because they are like us, even if they cannot run or speak. We are friends of immigrants, of those people want to send back home, even if sometimes they have no home. We are friends of nature, real friends, not those who set fire to the woods and pollute the sea. The words of the Rainbow Manifesto, read out in several voices during the event, set out the commitment of a generation of young people to peace and coexistence.
A commitment also affirmed by a concrete action: the children have prepared for this event for two months and saved their money to donate it to children victims of war. Each School of Peace brought its own piggy bank, which was "broken" in public. The sum collected will be sent to Ukraine.
