Next year will be back home

“The spirit of Assisi returns home.” With these words Monsignor Domenico Sorrentino, bishop of Assisi, announced that the 2016 edition of the international meeting of the St Egidio Community is going to take place in the city of the Poor Man from Assisi. The choice of Assisi is not incidental. On October 27 1986, 30 years ago, John Paul II fulfilled a great dream: to invite the representatives of world religions to Assisi for a joint prayer for peace to the one and only God. Approximately one hundred representatives of Christian Churches and leaders of major world religions accepted the invitation. For the first time they met in a mutual embrace of peace. The world watched them astounded and for one day the weapons were silenced. In his closing address John Paul II exhorted everyone to “Continue living the message of peace, continue living the spirit of Assisi!” The St. Egidio Community fulfilled the legacy of that Day and continued promoting meetings of prayer for peace in a different city each year. A wind that blows. It’s a long, silent story of dialogue and reconciliation, and with time it involved religious dignitaries along with high-level politicians and diplomats; men and women representing contemporary culture. All of them shared the desire to listen to the challenges of humanity and accompany mankind in the difficult, relentless quest for harmony and peace. The two meetings in Rome (1987 and 1988) were followed by the meeting in Warsaw, in September 1989, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War. Meetings were held in Bari, Malta, and in 1992 in Brussels on the theme of European unity. In 1993 the pilgrimage stopped in Milan, and in the following years in Assisi and in Florence. In 1995 the Community of St Egidio chose Jerusalem to give impetus to the Spirit of Assisi, followed, in time, by Palermo, Cyprus, Barcelona, Sarajevo, Anversa… Thirty years have passed and dark and sad pages of history were written in those years: wars, migrations, natural disasters. The most difficult moments were probably experienced in 2001, when on that tragic September 11 the attack on Ground Zero tore down the Twin Towers and miserably demolished the hopes of peace, crying out to the world that civilizations were too distant and different to engage in dialogue. But perhaps the most critical moments in history strengthened the belief that the Spirit of Assisi would never die. In fact, it had to continue blowing to soothe the wounds that wars and hatred had inflicted in the hearts of mankind. Appeal to pace. It is to the heart of mankind that the Spirit of Assisi continues speaking to us today. “To transform it from the inside – said Andrea Riccardi, from the podium in Tirana – to free it from the domination of the ego, from the worship of omnipotence, from the imprisonment of resignation.” And while wars have not ceased to sow death and destruction, there is an even more insidious enemy to fight and this is resignation: the common belief that a clash is inevitable and coexistence among peoples is impossible. For this “from Tirana, we are all called to meet the challenge to create, to re-create a large movement of hearts, minds, and will of peace.” Everyone was present on the stage set up in the main square of Tirana to sign the Appeal for Peace and light the candelabrum of peace. Rabbis and Imams, Cardinals and Evangelical Pastors stood up together and embraced. They all stand as religious leaders in their Countries of departure and to their flocks. Everyone can make the difference. Mercy and forgiveness. Indeed, the Spirit of Assisi “is thriving and it will return to join the spirit of the poor.” “This path of peace – said Bishop Sorrentino – has occasioned widespread support and conversions. Unfortunately, dramatic situations linger on at international level with hotbeds of war and tragic resurgences of religious fundamentalism that trouble us deeply. They are one more reason to say that the Spirit of Assisi must go on.” But there is also “a providential coincidence”: in 2016 will still be in progress the Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis, and the eighth centenary of the Pardon of the Portiuncula will be celebrated in Assisi. This will be an occasion to remember that “the hope of peace comes through mercy, forgiveness and a renewed heart.”