Dear friends,
on behalf of the Community I thank you for your presence that accompanies us on this joyful anniversary, the 57th of our history. As you know, the Community was born in Rome, it is a child of this Church of Rome whose bishop is the Pope. It also feels Roman inspired by that universal openness that characterises this city and above all its Church. This morning I had the joy of having an audience with Pope Francis, who asked me to bring his blessing to the Community, his support and gratitude for always being close to the poor and, at this time, particularly of migrants with humanitarian corridors. He also invited us to continue on the path of building peace in this city and in the many difficult places where the Community lives. I thank the Cardinal Vicar, Baldo Reina, for his presence and his words, and I assure him of my full communion in the service of this Church that he serves as the Pope's Vicar.
A special thanks goes to the lawyer Mrs Laura Mattarella, lawyer, for her presence and friendship, and may I take this opportunity to convey to the President of the Republic, from this assembly, the most deferential and affectionate greetings and thanks for his service to the unity of the country. I thank the civil and military authorities present. A thought goes to Cardinal Kasper and his commitment to Christian unity. I wish Cardinal Gugerotti, who is involved in the Middle East, all the best in his work for peaceful coexistence in those lands troubled by conflict. I thank Cardinal Bassetti for his friendship and constant support. I also thank the bishops and delegates of the other Churches and Christian communities.
Dear friends, brothers and sisters, the Jubilee is dedicated to hope. And this community of Sant'Egidio speaks of hope; it is certainly not large in number, but it has broad horizons. We do not give up hope, we continue to give hope and to live in hope in the face of so much loneliness, poverty and abandonment we encounter in our daily lives. ‘Hope does not disappoint’, says the apostle Paul, whose remains are venerated here. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Cardinal Harvey, Archpriest of this Basilica, for his kind hospitality, together with the Benedictine community and Abbot Ogliari.
We feel the responsibility of bringing ‘hope that does not disappoint’ and believe that only with friendship and the support of all of you will we be able to fulfil this task.
Over the years, we have always tried, following the Word of God, our ‘lamp for our steps’, not to cultivate partisan or ideological visions of life and history. We have tried to be free from viewing situations in a binary and opposing way (as often happens in conflicts) and from the culture of the enemy, seeing all evil in someone else. And thus discover unexpected resources and energies, freeing ourselves from an obvious pessimism, in the rediscovery of the bonds between men and women, between peoples, between different people. We are convinced that we must build a common destiny day after day, from which no one feels excluded.
A dear friend, a rabbi here in Italy, very kindly wrote to me in his greetings for this 57th anniversary: ‘The number 57 in Hebrew letters corresponds to Zan: “He who feeds the whole world”. May the Almighty grant many years of fulfilment and blessings brought by Sant'Egidio to the world’. These are wishes that are embarrassing because of their generosity, but I take them as an invitation to work every day to ‘feed’ our world, a world that in many parts is hungry for peace, goodness, friendship and future. And above all, to feed hope. Thank you for being here and let's continue to walk together.
