A concrete peace

Alongside global peace, there exists a daily peace made of small gestures within our reach.
Actions capable of changing the world of the people we encounter.

My name is Renato Rosso and I am a missionary from the Diocese of Alba.
For fifty years, I have dedicated my life to the nomadic peoples of the world. My journey began in Italy, where I lived for 12 years, continued for eight years in Brazil, and led me, for the last thirty years, to live between Bangladesh and India. My vocation has always been to share life with these communities, so similar to those we sometimes encounter in our daily lives. Recently, I responded to a request for help from the nomadic and Bedouin populations living in Israel, and for some time now, I have found myself immersed in a country at war.

Right now, Bangladesh, a country where I have lived for three decades, is facing the rainy season, which in recent years has brought devastating floods. It is a time of great suffering, when rivers overflowing their banks often cause terrible tragedies. However, it is precisely this water that makes the soil incredibly fertile, allowing for three annual harvests. Drought, in fact, would cause millions of deaths from hunger.
This situation reminds me of the example of a 28-year-old woman I knew. During a terrible flood, she learned that in a village an hour and a half away by boat, the earthen houses were collapsing, forcing the inhabitants to take refuge on their roofs. She proposed to the other inhabitants of her village that they join her on a rescue mission.

Fear, however, prevailed.
Deeming the undertaking too dangerous, the people refused to accompany her.
Stubborn and determined, the girl decided to set out alone in her small boat, braving the turbulent waters of the swollen river. After an hour and a half of travel, she reached the survivors, picked up one of them, and began the arduous journey home. Three hours later, the first person was safe.

Despite her pleas, no one joined her.
So she set off again, and after another three hours, she rescued a second person. Night fell, and her fellow villagers tried to dissuade her, but her determination proved unshakable: "If we stop, they will die." So she resumed rowing, even in the dark.
Moral of the story, or rather, of reality. The final outcome of her feat is a testament to courage: rowing for 36 consecutive hours, she managed to save 12 lives. She certainly didn't change the fate of the world, but she did her part, saving those twelve people. She certainly changed those people's world!
In this gesture lies a true victory, because it is not an act of war, but of peace. While war only generates defeat, acts of peace always bring victory.
This story teaches me that true strength does not always lie where we expect it.
This leads to a brief reflection: there is a global peace, like that in Ukraine or the Middle East, in which our power to intervene is limited to symbolic gestures, such as a signature or a demonstration.
Gestures are important and necessary, but there is also a concrete peace, which is within our reach. This peace manifests itself in forgiveness, mutual affection, the ability to overcome difficulties, and, above all, in attention to the suffering of others.

This is the peace we are called to build every day in our lives.
It is the commitment I ask of myself and that I also propose to you today.

Father Renato Rosso
Focus
NP October 2025