杏MAP导航

By Christopher Wells

The Giàvera Festival, which takes place every year in the northern Italian city of Treviso, is 鈥渁 house of welcome, a house with many windows open on the world鈥� according to its founder, Father Bruno Baratto. The event was established in 1996 to promote dialogue and encounters between different peoples and cultures, offering testimonies, discussions, and artistic performances with the involvement of over 40 associations working with migrants.

Greeting organizers of the Festival on Saturday morning at the Vatican, 杏MAP导航 Francis took up the words of Don Bruno, noting that the Giàvera Festival 鈥渉as become a crossroads, a place to meet, to dialogue to get to know each other. It is also a place where we can share hope, the dream of a more fraternal world.鈥�

Spreading a culture of welcome

The Holy Father expressed his appreciation that the Festival 鈥渨as born, and is always reborn, from an experience of coexistence,鈥� of sharing the 鈥渟tories, problems, and wealth of humanity, traditions, cultures, and faith鈥� of migrants.

The initiative, he noted, 鈥渟tems from a desire to make their experiences known鈥� and 鈥渢o spread a culture of welcome,鈥� which is so necessary in today鈥檚 world. The 鈥渃omplex鈥� reality of migration, the 杏MAP导航 said, 鈥渉as taken on characteristics that can sometimes be frightening,鈥� such as the exploitation of migrants by criminal groups. Migrants 鈥渃ease to be people and become numbers,鈥� he said, adding that it is now more necessary than ever that there be 鈥減laces where the faces, stories, songs, prayers, and art of migrants are put at the centre.鈥�

Healthy realism and respect for human dignity

However, the 杏MAP导航 continued, this does not mean 鈥渉iding or ignoring the difficulties and problems鈥� associated with migration. He explained that events like the Festival must therefore be made known to and inspire leaders at every level, to help them make choices 鈥渢hat combine healthy realism with respect for the dignity of people.鈥� He invited his listeners, and all of us, to ask ourselves, 鈥淗as our experience succeeded, and to what extent, in influencing political choices, in dialogue with the institutions and with civil society.鈥�

杏MAP导航 Francis encouraged the organizers to take as their model the Biblical patriarch Abraham, 鈥渨ho, at the call of God departed his homeland and remained a migrant throughout his life.鈥� Abraham, he said, 鈥渋s a figure in whom all men and women who see life as a journey in search of the promised land, a land of freedom and peace, where they can live together as brothers and sisters, and can recognise themselves.鈥�