EUROPE/ITALY - Rome is a “multi-ethnic city,” open to all foreign citizens and religious faiths, says a press conference given by the Foreign Citizen Council

Rome (Agenzia Fides) – “Rome has never been a racist city”: this is what the President of the “Citizen Council for the Representation of Foreign Communities” in the City of Rome, Mr. Pan Yong Chang, affirmed in a press conference given by the Citizen’s Council on the afternoon of October 14. Monsignor Giovanni D’Ercole, along with the Chinese Ambassador to Italy, and various regional and provincial authorities, took part in the conference. The talks pointed out the importance of collaboration and efforts on everyone’s part to build a better future, as the Holy Father Benedict indicated in his Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (celebrated on January 18, 2009): “This is the mission of the Church and of every baptized person in our time too, even in the era of globalization; a mission that with attentive pastoral solicitude is also directed to the variegated universe of migrants - students far from home, immigrants, refugees, displaced people, evacuees - including for example, the victims of modern forms of slavery, and of human trafficking,” in addition to the mission of promoting “in every part of the world and by every means, peaceful coexistence among different races, cultures and religions.” (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 15/10/2008)