"Your Holiness, as you are leaving for Cologne where the XX World Youth Day is taking place, I am sure I share the sentiments of the Italians by expressing the praise and confidence aroused by the attention that Your Holiness attaches to dialogue with the young generations". This is the beginning of the message sent today by the President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, to Benedict XVI on the occasion of the XX World Youth Day in Cologne.
"The young you will meet in your native country, coming from all over the world, express adds Ciampi a hope for a better future for all men. The firm demand for peace, justice, ethic values, both within our societies and in the relations among the States, of which the youth are bearers, is essential for strengthening an international community based on the centrality of the human being and on dialogue between civilisations and religions. Europe, through a new effort to search for its own essential and positive role in the world’s scenario, must offer itself as the cornerstone of an international system relying on a wide consensus from states and peoples".
