” “"Hope is a common factor in our religions, which are both messianic and as such focussed on the hope that tomorrow will be better than today". These are the words of Giuseppe Laras, president of the Italian Rabbis Association, which closes the morning session with an address to the participants in the IV National ecclesial meeting. According to Laras, "there’s the need to increase the weight of hope in the present but above all in the future". Taking inspiration from Zachariah’s words, the rabbi highlighted that we are "prisoners of hope", in that "we cannot but be the bearers of hope". Ten years ago, Laras took part in the Meeting in Palermo: "That meeting struck me for the number of participants, for that critical but at the same time brotherly atmosphere: since then I have always thought that these ten-yearly meetings of the Catholic Church are extremely important because we get to exchange experiences and analyse each other, as well as involve a large representation of the Catholic population".
