Community of Sant'Egidio and Peace

FROM THE POOR
TO PEACE

In the last ten years the Community of Sant'Egidio has become increasingly well known on the international level for its contribution to peace building in the world.

The media has spoken of the "UN of Trastevere" and of "the diplomats of Sant'Egidio".

For these activities, the Community of Sant'Egidio has been honored with various prestigious awards and recognitions.

In the Catholic Church and in other churches the Community is regarded as an important point of reference where the strong spirit of Christian unity is felt.

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WAR,
MOTHER OF ALL POVERTY

In the understanding that the Community of Sant'Egidio has progressively developed, conflict and poverty are increasingly intimately linked. War is the "mother of every poverty", destroyer of the humanitarian commitment for the future of entire populations; civil war in which members of the same population no longer recognize each other as brothers. War is also the absence of every justice, as seen in so many countries where conflict makes the defense of the most basic human rights impossible, as in Latin America and Africa. (continue...)

1999 Refugee from Kosovo

In the World

Comments
on the Community
(ITALIAN)

Memory
of the Shoah
(ITALIAN)

Initiatives

AIDS care in Africa

A hospital in Guinea-Bissau

Education and Peace

Humanitarian aid

Refugee in the region of Big Lakes

THE RESURRECTION OF AFRICA

The destiny of the African continent with its condition of poverty and abandonment is at the center of the concerns of the Community and its humanitarian and peacemaking initiatives.

The commitment in Mozambique also marked the beginning of the first communities in that country.

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A CULTURE OF LIVING TOGETHER

In response to the clamor of xenophobic sentiments in our society and in European societies, Sant'Egidio has chosen in favor of a culture of living together, it speaks of peace with "foreigners, our brothers" and underlines the tragic aspect of emigrating from war-torn regions, as well as immigration due to great poverty.

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THE "METHOD" OF SANT'EGIDIO

After the public disclosure of the Mozambican success, various requests for help arrived to the Community. In September 1994, during the inter-religious meeting in Assisi, several Algerian friends asked for intervention in their country prey to a serious internal political crisis. The Algerian Platform is the fruit of the intense work which continued until January of the following year. In two meetings convened by the Community, the leaders of the major Algerian political parties, who had not seen each other for years, met in Sant'Egidio. The Platform is an "offering of peace" which makes possible a way out of violence on the basis of shared values, with the perspective that the process of democratization of society and political life is necessary.

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PEACE AND DIALOGUE
BETWEEN RELIGIONS

The service to peace accompanies, and sometimes originates from, a tightly woven network of bonds of relationships and friendships born of the commitment to ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue that the Community has been carrying out since the eighties, in particular among the three great monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - but also with other world religions

Services

by
Mario Giro