Sant’Egidio founder: Peace requires a spiritual globalization

5 mins read
Pope John Paul II attends an interreligious encounter in Assisi, Italy, in 1986. CNS photo via L'Osservatore Romano

It has been 50 years since 18-year-old Andrea Riccardi started gathering around him a group of high school students to pray, listen to the Bible and lead an after-school program for poor children in the southern outskirts of Rome. Today the Community of Sant’Egidio has some 60,000 members scattered in 70 countries around the world.

After the election of the Polish pope, Riccardi, a retired professor of contemporary history at Rome’s Roma Tre University, became his close friend. Following its commitment to ecumenism, interreligious dialogue and peace, the Community of Sant’Egidio convokes every year in a different European city. In continuity with the historic Day of Prayer for Peace held by Pope John Paul II in 1986 at Assisi, Italy, the annual meeting brings together religious leaders from around the globe to pray for peace. Its most recent meeting took place in the northern Italian city of Bologna, from Oct. 14-16.

“Religions today risk sacralizing fanaticism, but their vocation is written in their depths: peace!” Andrea Riccardi told Our Sunday Visitor in an interview, stressing that, “We must not let that Assisi vision vanish.”

Our Sunday Visitor: Calling Pope St. John Paul II, the “pope of dialogue” is a simple, clear assessment, but couldn’t one say it is a bit reductive?

Riccardi

Andrea Riccardi: Why reductive? St. John Paul II was the man of dialogue in the Catholic Church, the man who met a massive number of people, the man of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. His entire life was dialogue. Even in the Polish Communist world, he brought dialogue as a value. Of course, his masterpiece is the Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi. I still remember Oct. 27, 1986, when he summoned the world religious leaders, in the times of the Cold War, to pray for peace, one next to the other.

OSV: Why would you say such an idea among world religious leaders was not immediately well understood?

Riccardi: Because it was a creative reception of the Second Vatican Council. Because one wondered, “What is the use of praying?” But I answer: “What would our world be without prayer? It would be a world without air.” And prayer and dialogue — I believe — are deeply linked, one with the other. This is the spirit of Assisi.

OSV: After 32 years, why do we still remember that day?

Riccardi: … [S]ince the world is moving at such an incredibly fast pace, we must not let that Assisi vision vanish. Pope Francis, celebrating the 30th anniversary of that event in Assisi, [on] Sept. 20, 2016, said, “Our dream is simple, a fraternal world.” Religions today risk being closed within their borders, legitimizing walls, sacralizing fanaticism, sometimes even terrorism … no! The vocation of religions is written in their deepest essence: peace.

OSV: While commemorating the Assisi Day of Prayer for Peace in Bologna, you said religions have not perceived globalization as an adventure of the spirit.

Riccardi: When I see ecumenism slowing down, the Christian churches becoming divided, the religious worlds using sometimes harsh language against each other, I am truly convinced of this: They have not understood that alongside the globalized economy, we must build a spiritual globalization. The religions are the breath, the life of the people, as well as a millennial accumulation of culture that religious fundamentalism throws away, making religions become ideologies.

OSV: St. John Paul II fought also strong battles for Europe to recognize its Christian roots. He also had a strong sense of the value of religious and cultural identity. Is all this compatible with dialogue?

Riccardi: There is no dialogue without identity. The global world is like a cold wind that forces everyone to cover up with our identity. But true identities are not identities “against.” They are identity “with.”

OSV: You had many personal meetings with John Paul II. Is there a word or an episode that today comes to mind more often than the others?

Riccardi: After the fall of Communism, he said, I remember: “We did not pray in vain in Assisi.” But I could remember many other things. I remember his joy and radiant face in Assisi, when he came down the road to the Basilica of San Francesco in the middle of the other religious leaders. …

OSV: John Paul II was pope and is a saint, a person who might seem unrelatable therefore to others. … What about his human side do you remember best?

Riccardi: I could mention his asceticism, the asceticism of prayer, yes, but also the asceticism of listening and dialoguing, spending time meeting people, listening to people. Ratzinger says that Wojtyla was the man of his time who met the greatest number of human beings — truly a challenge!

OSV: What do you see as being the most important feature of continuity with Pope Francis?

Riccardi: Pope Francis was appointed bishop and then created a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, then he canonized John Paul II, and now continues on his line. Of course, there is continuity and also differences, but history itself has changed. Today, we live in the global world. John Paul’s world was the world of the Cold War and the “Belle Époque” of globalization.

OSV: Why?

Riccardi: After 1989, within the collapse of Communism and the end of the Cold War era, it seemed that globalization, as providence, would have brought harmony, democracy, development. … So, we did not negotiate nor discuss, nor say what we wanted; we let ourselves be carried away, enchanted by this machine, if you will. I’m not an anti-globalist, but I believe that we must negotiate with globalization, as any other historical reality, what we want as nations, peoples, governments, religions.

Deborah Castellano Lubov writes from Rome.

What is Sant’Egidio?
Sant’Egidio refers to a saint, church and community. The saint, known as St. Gilles in English, was a hermit who lived during the seventh and eighth centuries. Originally from Greece, Gilles lived in France. A legend says that he took refuge in a forest with the sole company of a doe, who provided him with milk for food. During a hunting trip, Visigoth King Wamba’s men shot at the deer, but Gilles protected her and was wounded by the arrow. Impressed by the hermit, the king rewarded him with land, and the Saint-Gilles-du-Gard monastery was built where he later became abbot of a Benedictine community. Celebrated on Sept. 1, St. Gilles is patron of beggars, the disabled, disasters and the poor.

Inspired by the saint, a community of Discalced Carmelite nuns dedicated the church adjoining their monastery to the saint, using the Italian name, Sant’Egidio. It was built in Trastevere, Rome, in 1630, on the foundation of a previous chapel from the 12th century. The monastery thrived for centuries, but much of the building was confiscated by the state in 1873 due to poor conditions. The religious sisters left the monastery in 1972.

Church of Sant’Egidio in Rome Public domain

Since then, the church has been used as the center for the Community of Sant’Egidio, and the building was restored in 1988. Many of the interior decorations have remained, such as large canvases depicting Carmelite history, icons of saints and scenes of Christ, and grates that used to separate the church and cloister.

The Community of Sant’Egidio “pays attention to the periphery and peripheral people,” according to their website. United in fraternity and faith, the Community is committed to three fundamental principles: prayer, the poor and peace. Prayer refers to an emphasis on listening to the Word of God, which is a part of every meeting. In serving the poor, Community members reach out to the vulnerable in all walks of life. Some services include corresponding with people on death row, bringing warm food and comforts to homeless people on the streets, helping those with mental disabilities communicate through art at the Sant’Egidio’s Arts Labs, or working with migrants at their Schools of Language and Culture. The third element, peace, flows from the first two by praying for and serving the vulnerable. The Community staunchly believes that war is evil, and it serves civilians impacted by war throughout the world.

Deborah Castellano Lubov

Deborah Castellano Lubov writes from Rome.