In Italy the Church too is actively preparing for the Winter Olympics in Turin 2006, which Cardinal Severino Poletto, archbishop of Turin, has called a “favourable opportunity for individuals, groups and communities from other nations of Europe and the world to meet together”. The youth of Catholic Action took to the streets on Sunday 5 February in an afternoon of singing and dancing that ended in the Cathedral with a prayer for peace. A booklet, its title “Sport is a Gift of God” taken from a reflection by John Paul II, will be offered to the athletes competing in the Winter Olympics. It contains the readings of the masses of the “Olympic Sundays”. In his introduction, Monsignor Carlo Mazza, head of the Office of the Italian Bishops’ Conference for sport and chaplain of the Italian squad, hopes for “magic moments of joy and shared satisfaction”. Among the last torchbearers who will accompany the Olympic Flame to Turin will be a Salesian priest, Father Adriano Bregolin. During the Olympic period, the Salesians will in fact be proposing an educational and cultural programme aimed, in particular, at senior secondary school pupils on holiday. The Salesian youth club in Turin will thus become a place for young people to meet together for study, sport, cultural activities and also excursions into the surrounding mountains. Apart from the Olympic villages for the athletes, Turin will also be hosting the Ethical Village, the village of Olympic values and solidarity (from 5 to 26 February). The “Tavola Valdese” (Union of Waldensian and Methodist Churches) and the Waldensian Church of Torre Pellice will be organizing the “Bonfire of Freedom against all discrimination” at Torre Pellice on Thursday 16 February (9.00 pm), part of the programme “Olympics of Culture Dedicated to Turin 2006 ItalyArt”. On 17 February 1848 King Carlo Alberto of Piedmont signed the Letters Patent, with which he granted civil rights to the Waldensian religious minority: ever since then, it has been the custom to light bonfires in the towns and villages of the Valli Valdesi, on the night of 16 February; the whole population gathers round them in a great popular festivity. The bonfire is an expression of joy signalling the end of discrimination, in the hope for brotherhood between peoples and cultures.
