Rome welcomes youth from all over the world for International Youth for Peace meeting this weekend

 ROME - From August 28th to 30^th, around 1,200 young people, high school and university students from 12 European countries, with delegations from Africa, Latin America, and Asia, will gather in Rome for the international Youth for Peace meeting.

 The movement linked to the Community of Sant'Egidio supports children in need, the homeless, and the elderly living alone every day. It is committed to sustainable solidarity projects with the Ecolabs for Peace, and has promoted solidarity holidays for refugees in the camps in Cyprus and Greece during the summer months.

 This is a major event for peace, in a time marked by terrible wars such as those in Gaza and Ukraine. Sant'Egidio continues to support the population with humanitarian distributions and has opened educational centers for children and adolescents, thanks in part to the support of many refugees who have joined the Community including around 120 young men and women from Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kharkiv.

 On Thursday, August 28 and Friday, August 29, two assemblies will be held at the Nuvola conference centre in the EUR district, followed by a Flashmob for Peace at the Pantheon, gathering testimonies from young people from Gaza and Ukraine.

 A particularly significant moment will be the passage through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica on the morning of Saturday, August 30, to recall the words of Pope Leo XIV, who had called on young people to be “witnesses of justice, peace, and hope” and to aspire “to great things.”

 The conference will conclude on the evening of Saturday, August 30th, with a Eucharistic liturgy in Santa Maria in Trastevere and a celebration in the square.

rs