16/11/2006

Sant�Egidio group: �If you pray with us, you�re in.�

ST.PAUL, Minn. (The Catholic Spirit) - A beautiful mixture of Western and Eastern chant filled St. Mary�s Chapel at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul Nov. 12, as members of the U.S. Community of Sant�Egidio gathered for prayer before listening to a talk by Marco Impagliazzo, the group�s international leader.

Impagliazzo, based in Rome where Sant�Egidio began in 1968, was in Minnesota to accept the Dignitas Humana Award for the community from St. John�s School of Theology-Seminary during a Nov. 13 ceremony in Collegeville. The award is sponsored by the seminary in cooperation with The College of St. Benedict/St. John�s University, Catholic Charities in St. Cloud and Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

�We are very honored� to be among recipients such as capital punishment opponent Sister Helen Prejean, L�Arche Communities founder Jean Vanier and others, Impagliazzo said through an interpreter. The Community of Sant�Egidio was founded in Rome by Andrea Riccardi, who gathered a group of high school students together to listen to the Gospel and put it into practice. They visited the poor and began an afternoon school for homeless children. Friendship with the poor expanded to the elderly, the disabled, mentally ill and those displaced by war.

Today the Sant�Egidio community is a movement of lay people that has spread to 50,000 people in 70 countries. It is dedicated to evangelization and charity. Craig Wood, who with his wife, Teresa, started a local Sant�Egidio community in 2002, said, �Friendship is a key concept in the community.� But friendship is also a great challenge, he added.

Wood first encountered the Sant�Egidio community in 2001 during a trip to Rome with a friend. On their first night in the city, they went to visit a church mentioned in a guide book. �I noticed as he was taking pictures that people were walking into the church and it looked like something was going to happen,� Wood said. �We thought maybe a Mass or something, so we walked in and sat down. . . . At 8:30, the lights went down and this beautiful prayer service began. They were chanting in four-part harmony.�

Local movement After returning home, Wood said they asked Sant�Egidio leaders for help in starting a community in the Twin Cities. It began small in January 2002, meeting once a month for prayer. By August 2002, the group was meeting weekly for prayer at 6:30 p.m. Mondays in the chapel at Risen Savior in Burnsville and started a ministry to the elderly.

Last winter, a group of former University of St. Thomas students heard about the Burnsville group and decided they wanted to start praying, Wood said. That group, which meets at 6:30 p.m. Fridays at St. Richard in Richfield, was formed by Zach and Laura Zeckser, who were part of the Sant�Egidio community in Rome for a year, while Laura was studying full time at the Angelicum.

When they returned to Minnesota to teach - he is at Benilde-St. Margaret�s in St. Louis Park and she was at St. Bernard�s in St. Paul - they missed the community they had in Rome. So, they gathered some friends together last December and suggested starting a community. The group met in homes monthly for a time, before meeting weekly, beginning in July, at St. Richard. The group prays for about 20 minutes each Friday, before members have a potluck meal and play basketball or board games with the youth in the parish.

There is no formal membership to the Sant�Egidio community, Wood said. �If you join us in prayer and service, you�re one of us,� he said.

St. John�s presents award to Sant�Egidio The Community of Sant�Egidio received the 2006 Dignitas Humana Award from St. John�s School of Theology-Seminary during a ceremony Nov. 13 at St. John�s University in Collegeville. The annual award recognizes individuals or groups that serve the disadvantaged and whose work heightens public awareness of the needs of the world�s marginalized.

Previous recipients include Elie Wiesel, Rev. Carl Wilkens, the Taiz� community of France, St. Joseph of Medaille Sister Helen Prejean, Jesuit Father Gregory Boyle, Jean Vanier, Marva Collins and Jonathon Kozol, who was the first recipient in 1998.

For more on the award and previous winners, visit www.csbsju.edu and type in �dignatas humana award� under �search for.� To get information on the local community, visit www.santegidiomn.org.

Pat Norby