Tokyo - Feb. 19, 1999
The Community of Sant'Egidio to Receive
Sixteenth Niwano Peace Prize

The Niwano Peace Foundation will award the sixteenth Niwano Peace Prize to the Community of Sant'Egidio of Italy. The presentation ceremony will take place in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, May 7th, at 10:30 a.m.. In addition to the award certificate, the Community of Sant'Egidio will receive a subsidiary prize of a medal and ￥20 million. To avoid undue emphasis on any particular religion or region, every year the Foundation solicits nominations from people of recognized intellectual stature around the world. In the nomination process, some 1,000 people and organizations representing 125 countries and many religions were asked to propose candidates. The nominations were rigorously screened by a seven-member committee that included representatives of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.

THE RECIPIENT OF THE SIXTEENTH NIWANO PEACE PRIZE

The Niwano Peace Foundation (Nichiko Niwano, president; Motoyuki Naganuma, chairman) has chosen the Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome, headed by Andrea Riccardi, as the recipient of the Sixteenth Niwano Peace Prize. Sant'Egidio is a Roman Catholic lay association recognized by the Vatican that is involved in a wide range of activities, including caring for the poor and hungry among immigrant groups, the elderly, and the homeless; promoting dialogue among people of different faiths; and reconciling the parties in armed conflicts.

The prize decision is the result of careful deliberation by a selection committee of seven members representing the Buddhist, Christian, and Islamic faiths, who chose from nominations offered by some 1,000 recognized authorities in 125 different countries.The Community of Sant'Egidio originated in 1968 with a group of ten students at a secondary school in Rome. Andrea Riccardi was one of those students and played a leading role in the group's formation.

Their goal was to reflect sincerely upon the word of God as conveyed by the Gospels and to apply the lessons learned in society. The group went out into the streets of Rome and began by teaching the children of poor families that had moved to Rome from the south seeking work.

This small experiment won the sympathy of many people and the group's membership grew. At that time in Rome, the numbers of migrants from within Italy and immigrants from abroad were growing. Left out of the mainstream of society, they suffered from extreme poverty and many also were the victims of loneliness and violence. The Community of Sant'Egidio joined hands with them, vowing to work together. The Community has remained true to its original promise, even as its activities have become increasingly diversified and widespread.

More than thirty years later, the Community of Sant'Egidio now has a membership of some 18,000 volunteers of all ages and from all walks of life. The core of the Community is composed of vigorous men and women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who dedicate their free time in the afternoons and evenings after their daytime jobs to work as volunteers in any way they can.

While the Community's activities are centered in Rome, it also has ongoing programs in Genoa, Naples, Florence, and other parts of Italy. Elsewhere, it can be found at work in more than 20 countries in Europe, Central America, Africa, and Asia.

The Community focuses on society's weak and poverty-stricken. Community volunteers support educational activities in the poor districts of major cities and have worked to build recovery and treatment centers for AIDS patients, drug addicts, the disabled, and others. The Community also has been giving great attention to caring for the elderly who are no longer able to support themselves, as well as for elderly immigrants. Specifically, Community volunteers provide emergency support for facilities that care for the aged; donate food; and assist in vocational and language training. The Community also has led a number of campaigns to recognize the basic human rights of immigrants, turning the intolerance and racism directed against them into tolerance. It also has provided tens of thousands of meals for the homeless, and has prepared and distributed detailed pamphlets showing where free meals and lodgings are available.

Interreligious dialogue and cooperation represent another important facet of the Community of Sant'Egidio's activities. In 1986, Pope John Paul II called for a Day of Prayer for World Peace to be held in Assisi and participated in by people of all religions.

Starting in the following year, the Community has annually sponsored in various European locations international gatherings inspired by Assisi. Last year marked the twelfth such gathering of religious leaders from around the world representing different faiths. These meetings provide an invaluable forum for interfaith dialogue.

A unique characteristic of the Community of Sant'Egidio is its involvement in efforts to stop regional conflicts, an extremely difficult global issue. For example, during the fighting in Mozambique that claimed the lives of one million people, the Community held frequent official and unofficial meetings with both government and antigovernment forces. In 1992, an agreement to end the fighting was signed at last following mediation by the Italian government, the Community of Sant'Egidio, and the Roman Catholic church in Mozambique.
The Community continues to mediate conflicts in a similar way in such places as Lebanon, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Burundi, the former Yugoslavia, Guatemala, Somalia, and Sudan.

The evangelical word of God has been the basis for all that the Community of Sant'Egidio has undertaken. Here the word "community" means much more than simply living together. The Community of Sant'Egidio is made up of people of faith who choose to live with all peoples as children of God. They are motivated by the strong belief that we are all brothers and sisters, members of the same human family, and as such our love should be shared not only with our own families and friends within our own countries, but also with others of different ethnic background and cultures.

The Community of Sant'Egidio has won worldwide respect for the depth of its religious faith and for the initiatives it has taken to become a "working religious community." Its leadership has given courage and hope to religious people in Italy and throughout the world.

In awarding the Sixteenth Niwano Peace Prize to the Community of Sant'Egidio, the Niwano Peace Foundation wishes to express its great esteem for the Community's dedication to social justice and world peace. We commend the Community's significant achievements to date and pray that numerous others will follow in their footsteps.

Links

Niwano Peace Foundation