Christmas greetings from the president of the Foundation
Florence, Christmas 2023
In the Church of Santa Maria della Pieve in Arezzo, as soon as we cross the threshold -on the right- nine faces of distant, silent, anonymous suffering introduce us to the sacred. Those faces were chosen from a folder full of other eloquent images by students who participated in the "Man Project" organized by the Foundation from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.
They are faces that we could meet every day in our cities; faces that tell of the same periphery that on the night of Bethlehem was populated by the excluded as they approached the Grotto and that still today ask that that embodied Hope does not remain confined to the territories of good statements only, as they would have the right to reproach us since they are deprived of any future - as they are - because of the conflicts that still inflame some regions of the world; conflict in Afghanistan, civil war in Myanmar, crisis in Yemen, Russian-Ukrainian war, Gaza or Israeli-Palestinian war, conflict
Tigray in Ethiopia. And this list of the bloodiest is not enough because we cannot forget those scattered around the world: in Africa, in Asia (Iraq and Syria), in South America (the FARC in Colombia), in North America (the drug war in Mexico).
How can we not become aware of the astute distortions of the Gospel message where peace is mentioned! Peace is not only a commandment for consciences but also for states and nations that act with other logics! If they measured themselves by that commandment they would recognize the deceptive language with which they absolve their decisions From that Grotto we nevertheless find the courage of the wish: "Merry Christmas!" And that is also what we make to ourselves as we look back at what we have accomplished in this -yet again dramatic- year 2023.
The Foundation has gradually equipped itself more convincingly to support its activities; again this year saw it engaged in projects in the Holy Land (Bethlehem, Jericho, Effetà ) and then in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq. In our country with the migrant program, with the reception of Ukrainian refugees, with the humanitarian corridors project, with the important territorial initiatives of the Social Enterprise Qoelet.
Finally, its participation in the tables of local authorities in favor of the neediest categories is pre-establishing the conditions for the full application of regulations for the co-programming and co-design of interventions of extensive social utility. Despite the financial difficulties that reaffirm the more general economic condition of our country (it would suffice to read the Caritas 2023 report on poverty and social exclusion in Italy) and bearing the consequences of a world economy (read conflicts and monetary policies, confused decisions in environmental policy) further weakening the already limping categories (workers, retirees), the Foundation has maintained its programs and balanced management of "spending" even making investments to supplement the staff of the Fundraising section and to achieve accreditation with CAF (Charity American Fund) that will allow us to intervene in the U.S. "donors" area.
We are looking forward to setting up in our Bethlehem location the place to collect and disseminate the identities of the peoples of the Holy Land spread around the world. We will begin by exporting there the exhibition of "faces" that has so fascinated the children.
I take advantage of an image suggested to me by a note read in a dedicated text, which I think the Foundation can appropriate as a viaticum for the legacy it has received. It is that of the episode of the Paralytic of Capernaum told in Mark's Gospel. The paralytic wished to obtain forgiveness from Jesus and was accompanied by four "volunteers" who supported him on a stretcher. Unable to reach the place where Jesus sat and proclaimed the Word-because of the large crowd around him-these
"volunteers" climb to the roof, uncover it and lower the stretcher with the paralytic right in front of HIM.
Isn't the Foundation called - with the involvement of its volunteers - to uncover the roofs that cover the rooms inhabited by selfishness, egotism, protagonism, careerism, clericalism, secularism, intellectualism, goodism, favoritism, personalism, businessism, racism, to lower before Hope the excluded, the new paralytics (future amputees) who seek not forgiveness but justice?
Merry Christmas
Andrea Bottinelli
