Fasting dinner, peace march

Wars, uncertainty, many questions about the future. A year-end full of anxiety, but also of so much hope.
The Fasting Dinner and the Peace March of Sermig have reflected this very special meeting between opposites for fifty years. So it is again this year. An evening of music, words and testimonies to try to look for new paths to follow in reality, as it is.
These are the motivations of Lucia Capuzzi, Avvenire's correspondent in crisis areas and her view of life learned from meeting the victims and the last. These are the memories of Laura and Amerigo Basso, parents of Sammy, the young researcher from Vicenza suffering from progeria, who passed away three months ago. These are the steps of commitment of many young people, ready to give concreteness to ideals of welcome, solidarity, choices for the common good.
Stories, ages, different origins united by the same desire and the same will: to listen to life that speaks.

Matteo Spicuglia
NP January 2025

Never before has peace cried out its urgency. Peace that does not mean submitting to the arrogance of those who attack other countries with weapons, but the peace of respect for human rights, the peace of the right of every people to freedom and dignity.
The growth in spending on armaments, triggered in the world by Russia's aggression against Ukraine - which also forces us to provide for our own defense - has reached the record figure of 2,443 billion dollars this year. Eight times more than what has been allocated to combat climate change.
A disheartening disproportion. […] The end of the year is also a time for taking stock. I have encountered positive and encouraging values ​​and behaviors in the faces, gestures, and testimonies of many of our fellow citizens. I have read them in the words of Sammy Basso who teach us to live a full life, beyond every difficulty. […] We are the hope. Our commitment. Our freedom. Our choices.

Sergio Mattarella,
from the 2024 end-of-year speech

Dear friends, a new year is about to begin; a new year means being reborn, starting over, believing again, repeating the yeses and nos that made us grow. Therefore, for the new year I recommend: head on shoulders, feet planted on the ground and gaze turned to the sky. Our life is a continuous birth and death: we go down into the depths of the Mystery and we rise up recreated, new. Let us recreate fraternal relationships, a loving spirit, welcoming every richness that is in diversity and in comparison without controversy. No one has the truth in their pocket, we are all in continuous dialogue with the Mystery.
A new year also means recreating the reasons for hope, and reliving them each of us. I wish you this with all my heart because it is the only thing that matters.

Ernesto Olivero,
December 31, 2024