EDITORIAL

Holding its breath, the world follows the events following the 11th of September. It is not easy to find an orientation in a world that is so large and complex. Sometimes we use tragic simplification that divide what cannot be divided and pretend to clarify what cannot be easily clarified. Often they are the fruit of the anxiety we experience when we follow the events taking place in the world. They are the fruit of the absence of reassuring interpretations or of the lack of perspectives.

The Islamic-Christian Summit organized in Rome by the Community was a way of having Christians and Muslim speak together in front of the Western public opinion. It has been a direct way of avoiding the short circuit of interpretations, of the distorted messages, of the easy simplification that want the ones inevitably enemies of the others and vice versa. Dialogue between religions, cultures and civilizations, is a long term process. We do not reach easy agreement also because we are different. But diversity does not unavoidably carry to clash and misunderstanding. In today�s world, in fact, we are all forced to live together: we must speak to one another, we must explain, we must understand each other. The Summit wanted to recall us all to the value of dialogue, not to make alliances or to sign pacts (it is beyond any intention of ours), but to realize a mutual exchange, a direct contact. This is why, on the background of a fragmented and conflicting world it has been a highly positive event.

In the 2001, in the new century, we cannot loose the memory of what the war, the fruit of the nazi totalitarianism, has been, with its burden of horrors, first of all the Sho�. This is why every year, in Rome, the Community of Sant�Egidio, remembers that tragic 16th of October when the Nazi, helped by the fascists, rounded up the Jews of Rome sending them to be exterminated. In this event, every year, we repeat, both as an act of memory and of commitment, that never again will the Jewish Community be separated from the other Roman people Christians or non Christians, first with the racial laws, followed by the implementation of those laws and eventually with the deportation. Many young people, born long after those tragic events and many immigrants normally participate to the rally. It becomes a moment of memory and an event of hope for a better world.

In more than 50 years, the world has changed dramatically. Our Europe found well-being, security and democracy. However today we feel the winds of violence and insecurity that threaten it. We realize that, on the vast scenarios of the world, violence, war and terrorism do not find any obstacle, while misery lords it over large regions. In this great, terrible, desperate and beautiful world - as someone wrote - we must always reinvigorate the reasons for hope, we must not be intimidated by problems that are too great for us to eventually slide into inertia. Some fear for their security. But our security cannot be found in our concerns rather, as the Gospel says, in the search for the Kingdom of God and in its justice.

10/09/01 - Terni - International Forum on Monsignor Romero

10/09/01 - Rome - There is no Future without Memory: a March in Memory of the Deportation of the Roman Jews

10/03/01 - Rome - The Community of Sant'Egidio Organises an Islam-Christian Summit

09/30/01 - Stockholm (Sweden) - Seminar "'The Ecumenism of the New Martyrs"

09/29/01 - Sant'Egidio Newsletter: the First Number has been Issued

 NO TO THE DEATH PENALTY - NEWS 

october 14, Sunday: Liturgy of the Sunday
Thanksgiving for the day of the Lord. We remember San Callisto, bishop of Rome, martyred in AD 222. We remember our communities that pray in the church of San Callisto.

october 15, Monday: Memory of the Poor

october 16, Tuesday: Memory of the Mother of the Lord
We remember the deportation of the Jews of Rome and the Holocaust during the Second World War. Today is the anniversary of the inauguration of the episcopate of Pope John Paul II, Bishop of Rome.

october 17, Wednesday: Memory of the Church
Memory of Ignatius of Antioch, bishop of the Church at Antioch, condemned to death and brought to Rome, where he was martyred in AD 107. We remember the Churches of the East that have their roots in the Patriarchate of Antioch.

october 18, Thursday: Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Memory of Luke, the Evangelist and author of the Acts of the Apostles.

october 19, Friday: Memory of Jesus crucified

october 20, Saturday: Sunday Vigil

october 21, Sunday: Liturgy of the Sunday
Thanksgiving for the day of the Lord.

october 22, Monday: Memory of the Poor
Memory of Mary, mother of James and John, who followed the Lord to the foot of the Cross and placed him in the tomb.

october 23, Tuesday: Memory of the Mother of the Lord

october 24, Wednesday: Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Today the Syrian and Armenian Churches remember the Seven Saints of Ephesus. It is an ancient martyrs tradition (from AD 250) that is venerated by all the Churches, in the West as well as in the East. Islam also venerates them as martyrs (Sura 18, 9-26). We pray for all those who give witness to the faith with courage, and for the contact and dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

october 25, Thursday: Memory of the Church

october 26, Friday: Memory of Jesus crucified
We pray for the faithful of all religions. We remember the historical Prayer for Peace in Assisi (1986) when Pope John Paul II invited the representatives of all Christian and other faiths to pray for peace.

october 27, Saturday: Sunday Vigil
Memory of Dimitri of Bessarabia, patron saint of the Cathedral of Bucharest. Prayer for the Church in Romania and all our brothers and sisters there.

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