It's a movement more than an organization. It is clearly Catholic but is committed to a broad spirituality and to including people from many religions (and none) and lay. It is not monastic. It counts about 70,000 members in some 60 countries.
What's brought Sant'Egidio most vividly to international attention is their creative and dogged pursuit of peace in far flung corners of the world. Best known is the lasting peace agreement they brokered for Mozambique in 1992 after 30 years of brutal war. If there is a hot spot in the world, Sant'Egidio is probably involved somehow. Members of the community are, at any given moment, involved in dozens of secret negotiations, explorations with warring parties, and formal mediation and reconciliation work.
But the conflict work is only a piece of the story. The Community is one of the world's most passionate advocates for poor people and for the absolute, unmistakable and inescapable obligation on each and every one of us to fight poverty and to act for anyone who is pushed aside, despised and denigrated. That includes prisoners, the Roma (or Gypsys), migrants in Europe's cities and people on death row. Sant'Egidio has taken up the cause of HIV/AIDS, working to save lives with quality medical care. It works to give people the practical tool of a birth certificate, befriends and supports the old and the young, and fires youth with a hope that working together for a better future is not a dream but a real possibility.
They run what some see as the most important annual interreligious gathering. In 1986, at a dark moment in history when the Cold War still cast a dark shadow on the world, Pope John Paul invited leaders from the world's religions to Assisi, the city in Italy where St. Francis lived and inspired a new idea of peace. There, recognizing their common interest while respecting their differences and facing the real dangers in the world, the leaders promised to work for peace. Since Each year since then -- there have been 24 meetings so far -- in a pilgrimage of peace, the Community of Sant'Egidio organizes a stunning meeting that they call a prayer for peace. This week, the meeting was in Barcelona, Spain. More than 2,000 volunteers from the Community welcomed more than 300 religious leaders: Cardinals, bishops, metropolitans, patriarchs, rabbis, imams, Sheikhs, monks and nuns. Coming from the world's largest religious traditions, all preach a message of peace. Many others attend: heads of state, journalists, public intellectuals and activists. Some puzzled tourists observe and are caught in the spirit.
The meeting combines ritual, pageant, intellectual discourse, dialogue on leading issues and secret meetings. It culminates in an extraordinary ceremony on the final day. The different religious groups pray separately, thus symbolizing the understanding that dialogue means deepening, not watering down or combining different religious traditions. Then the leaders process towards the central square, meeting each other with embraces, laughter and applause. It's like a river, with different branches coming together. The leaders gather on a platform, all in their regalia, to listen to witnesses to peace and to a moving appeal. The leaders hand copies of the appeal (with an olive branch) to children who then give them to diplomats in the audience. The leaders light candles and sign the appeal. You can watch the ceremony and read about the meeting here.
The beauty of the sight (this year with Barcelona's spectacular Cathedral as the backdrop), its deep symbolism, powerful rhetoric and emotional call are reinforced by the enthusiastic audience. In a world where meetings about peace rarely stir media enthusiasm to a fraction of the interest of pretty much any violent act, the formula works its magic. For the moment, cynicism is banished. People return year after year both because of the truly inspiring people and messages and because the pageantry stirs the soul.
The annual gathering moves from city to city, taking inspiration from each place. Last year it was in Cracow where the memory of the Holocaust and the nearby Nazi death camp at Auschwitz loomed large. The year before in Cyprus, the ancient crossroads of the Mediterranean was vividly set in a divided, still-bitter conflict. I first attended the 2002 meeting in Palermo, Sicily, where the challenge of the mafia was close at hand.
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