Pope Francis offers great encouragement to the 44th Meeting of Friendship Among Peoples, whose theme this year is ‘Human existence is an inexhaustible friendship.” The Rimini Meeting, named for the Italian sea town in which it takes place annually, is organized by the Communion and Liberation Movement, and takes place from 20 – 25 August 2023.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
Pope Francis encouraged the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, frequently referred to as the Rimini meeting, in a message of warm greetings sent and published on Friday.
The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, sent the letter on the Pope’s behalf.
Every year since 1980, the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples takes place in the northern Italian sea town of Rimini in late August. This year’s theme is “Human existence is an inexhaustible friendship.”
The Rimini meeting is an annual event, organized by the Communion and Liberation Movement, which draws larges numbers of faithful, also to hear various high-level individuals discuss key issues. It also offers various pavillions and activities for individuals, families, and children.
Amid war and divisions
This year’s message began with a solemn acknowledgement of the wars plaguing the world, and nearby.
“Global and pervasive communication,” the Cardinal’s message on the Pope’s behalf continued, “causes this widespread attitude to become a mentality, differences to appear as symptoms of hostility and a kind of epidemic of enmity to occur.”
In this context, he reasoned, the theme of the Meeting sounds bold, “because it clearly goes against the trend, in a time marked by individualism and indifference, which generate loneliness and many forms of discarding others.”
No one can be saved alone
“It is impossible to escape the situation,” he recalled, by one’s own strength.
That is why, at a precise moment in history, the Pope expressed, God took the initiative, to send His Son, who presented himself as a friend. “The Spirit of the Risen Christ broke the loneliness by giving man his friendship, as pure grace,” he said.
Faithful friends reflect Lord’s affection
Addressing young people, the Holy Father extolled the value of true friendship, which enlarges the heart.
“Faithful friends,” the Pope reflected, “are a reflection of the Lord’s affection, His consolation and His loving presence.”
Cardinal Parolin recalled that the attitude of openness to the other as a brother is one of the hallmarks of Pope Francis’s pontificate, his witness and his magisterium.
The Vatican Secretary of State recalled that in Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti, he says, “It is precisely social friendship, which the Pope continues to recommend as the only chance even in the most dramatic situations – even in the face of war – ‘when it is genuine […] within a society it is a condition of possibility for true universal openness.”
Cannot be deaf as cries raise to God
The law of friendship, the Pope’s message continues, was laid down by Jesus when he said there is no greater love than one laying down his life for his friends.
“Speeches are not enough, what is needed are rather concrete gestures and shared choices that build a culture of peace where each one of us lives,” he continued, calling for efforts to be made at a level of friendship among people different from one another.
Promote culture of encounter
Pope Francis expressed his hope that the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples will continue to promote a culture of encounter, which is open to all, and where no one is excluded.
Expressing his desire that the encounter promote social friendship, the Pope extended his blessing upon all involved and participating.
