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John Paul II Foundation / Magazine

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Article, Magazine, News
April 25, 2024

Today, April 25, on the occasion of Italian Liberation Day, Civitella in Val di Chiana hosts a solemn commemoration, at which Bishop Luciano Giovannetti, Honorary President of the John Paul II Foundation, is present as a witness and survivor of the horror of June 29, 1944. This event commemorates 80 years since the massacre, when Nazi-Fascist troops carried out a massacre that deeply marked the history of the community. Bishop Luciano, who lived through the horror of those days as a child, returned to his hometown to honor the memory of the victims and witness the community's determination to pursue peace and reconciliation. Alongside him, two other survivors of the massacre will join the commemoration, along with President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. Luciano Giovannetti's personal story is intertwined with the dramatic events of Civitella. Born in the small Tuscan village, Luciano experienced the horror of the massacre up close when he was only 10 years old. Together with his mother, he...

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Magazine, News
April 22, 2024

On Thursday, April 18, 2024, a day of restitution was held at the Blue Room in Fuligno (FI). Students from 6 educational institutions - the Giovanni XXIII Institute of Terranuova Bracciolini (AR), the Galileo Galilei Technical Institute (AR), the Gramsci Scientific High School (FI), the Machiavelli Institute (FI), the Balducci Pontassieve Institute (FI), and the Galileo Galilei Scientific High School (SI) - accompanied by their teachers, illustrated their 29 projects, arousing interest, participation, and emotion as they recounted their experiences. The centerpiece of the day was an audio-video link from Jerusalem with Father Ibrahim Faltas, a class of students from Jerusalem and two teachers from Terra Sancta School. The students confronted each other, asked questions about the difficult situation those populations are experiencing-a serious and constructive dialogue that culminated in a monologue recited in Italian by a Terra Sancta School student. Bringing their greetings to the day were: Lorenzo...

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Magazine, News
April 15, 2024

Florence experienced three days of youthful energy with the Francis Live 2024 event, which attracted as many as 1,700 participants. The John Paul II Foundation took part in the event with a workshop on Saturday, April 13 at the Sala degli Otto in Palazzo Vecchio. With the theme "A Sustainable Dream," President Andrea Bottinelli along with Renato Burigana, Alessandro Martini and Maurizio Artale led a training session, offering the young people in attendance a unique opportunity to learn and share ideas....

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Magazine, News
April 11, 2024

The Mediterranean Youth Council will inaugurate its official headquarters at the Bishop's Seminary in Fiesole on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at 4 p.m. H.E. Msgr. Giuseppe Baturi, secretary of the Italian Bishops' Conference, and Ambassador Pasquale Ferrara, Director General for Political Affairs and Security of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, will speak at the inauguration. In addition, five young people will be present to represent the delegates. The office will serve as the official headquarters for the meetings of the "Mare Nostrum" network, composed of the four entities involved in the project: the Giovanni Paolo II Foundation, the Giorgio La Pira Foundation, the "Giorgio La Pira" International Center and the "Giorgio La Pira" Youth Work. The venue will be the place where the 40 delegates from more than 18 countries will meet once a year to discuss issues such as peace, interreligious dialogue and the role of youth in the political, economic and social reality of the Mediterranean. You can...

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Magazine, News
April 8, 2024

On April 4, the Mediterranean Youth Council, which came into being as a result of the 2022 Mediterranean Bishops' meetings in Florence, met in Brussels with European institutions to discuss issues concerning the future of youth, peace among peoples and interreligious dialogue. The meeting was attended by Dr. Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, Msgr. Mariano Crociata, President of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union, MEP Beatrice Covassi, Patrizia Giunti, President of the La Pira Foundation, 4 Youth of the Board, and Tina Hamalaya, operational secretary of the John Paul II Foundation's Mediterranean Youth Council. ...

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Magazine, News
March 28, 2024

We share with you this great joy, after 6 years since the presentation of the provisional project and a very long bureaucratic process characterized by blockages and postponements, finally Don Pino Puglisi's dream begins to be realized! In fact, on March 13, 2024, the Palermo City Council approved the urban planning variant, an essential act for the construction of the work. Around June, the executive phase of the project will begin, and it should be realized by 2026. We would like to thank all the donors who have supported us in this journey to build the Brancaccio nursery school in Palermo....

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Magazine, News
March 28, 2024

Dear Friends of the Foundation, These days we write on our social media, on our webpage, "a safe place" for the children of Bethlehem. A few words are enough to unite us in a dilated embrace to reach out to that land and place the origin and inspiration of the Founders of the Foundation. "Place-Safe Place-Children-Bethlehem" are the cardinal points that reconfigure the space where it is still possible to experience hope mortally wounded by the terrible consequences of violence, savagery, absence of humanity in men that no century has limited (the Israel-Hamas war). The place: our Bethlehem location. A large garden area in the immediate vicinity of the historic center where the architecture of buildings bordering on beauty in form and color impose themselves and already host -for extracurricular activities- the children of Bethlehemite families. Safe: because it ensures. It has a protective function whereby one feels safe and regains a sense of tranquility, helps to leave behind the...

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Magazine, News, Uncategorized
March 21, 2024

Rome, March 18-20, 2024 ITALIAN EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE National Office for Social Communications Permanent Council Final Communiqué- excerpt Mediterranean Youth Council. An update was presented about the activities of the Mediterranean Youth Council, a sign-work born following the Meeting of Mediterranean Bishops and Mayors (Florence, Feb. 23-27, 2022). Strongly desired and supported by the CEI, the project aims to care for the spiritual dimension, strengthen pastoral action in the face of today's challenges and build fraternal relationships. As part of the Council's work, a meeting of the Executive, accompanied by Msgr. Baturi, with Msgr. Mariano Crociata, President of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union, and with Dr. Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, is scheduled for April 3 and 4 in Brussels. Then, on April 16, the Council's headquarters will be inaugurated in Fiesole. Also under construction is the web portal of the Mediterranean Youth Council, where they will be...

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Magazine, News
March 19, 2024

We have to say God bless Don Giovanni Sassolini, one of the inspirers and founders of our Foundation. As we extend our embrace to the family members, we extend a grateful and thankful thought to Don Giovanni for his service and for the good he wished the Holy Land and the John Paul II Foundation....

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Conversations, Magazine
March 6, 2024

Chains on wrists, chains on feet, the chain as a leash. Chains have always represented the denial of the freedom we all cherish. Nelson Mandela wrote, "the chains imposed on one of us weigh on the shoulders of all." So in these days we have felt as a community, watching the images of Ilaria Salis being led and held in chains at the first hearing of the trial in which she is a defendant in Budapest, the weight of those chains, as an injustice, not because she is innocent of the crimes charged against her, but because it is not human to humiliate and treat a person that way. To us Italians those chains weigh even heavier because our feeling about human dignity is perhaps different today from that of the Hungarian people, because of our conception of the rule of law, because of our history, because of the achievements we have made, because of a Constitution that is based on the recognition and...

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