“I will give a future and a hope” is the subject of the fifth and last stop of the international congress for the new evangelisation of the big cities in Europe, which, after Vienna 2003, Paris Toussaint 2004, Lisbon 2005 and Brussels Toussaint 2006, will be held in Budapest from 16th to 22nd September. Every morning, the basilica of Saint Stephen will host moments of prayers, with the involvement of the Community of Taizé, Emmanuel, the Beatitudes and others; conferences and testimonies on missions in this day and age. The afternoons and evening will be spent in workshops on the experiences of evangelisation and the missionary initiatives in the cities. On 19th September, card. Peter Erdö, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, will celebrate Mass in Esztergom, which is the archbishop’s see and the historical capital of the country. A meeting of the archbishops of Vienna, Paris, Lisbon and Brussels, the dioceses that hosted the earlier evangelisation congresses, will meet in Budapest on 22nd September. The chosen logo of the initiative is the image of the bridge over the Danube, a river which around the year 1000, during the Barbarian invasions and just after the death of Saint Stephen, the first king of Hungary, Saint Gerard was thrown into. The bridge, explain the organisers, “aims at recalling the martyrdom of those who were thrown into the river because of their faith: it is a symbol of life and reconciliation between the components of society that have experienced divisions and splits” and means to recall that “unity does not depend on politics or on our efforts, but on Christ”. In addition, it is an “image of the bond between Hungary and Europe”.
