Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - “A Home away from Home”: is the theme of the 16th edition of the “Festival of Peoples ”, an initiative which has been held for the last three years in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, with the city's ethnic communities playing a leading role. Some 55 stands in the Square will open at 9am. This will mark the commencement of animation for children, the Festival programme organised by the Scalabrini Missionaries in collaboration with Caritas and Migrantes Offices of Rome Vicariate, the capital's ethnic communities, some associations all sponsored by the City Council and Rome Province. The theme was chosen to measure the grade of acceptance, integration and belonging in the city community and to recall the image of the Church, as a home open and welcoming with neither limits nor frontiers.
The centre point of the day will be the Celebration of Mass at midday in the Basilica, presided by the Vicariate secretary general Mgr. Mauro Parmeggiani with liturgical animation organised by 30 different ethnic communities present in Rome. The communities will also manage the stands with typical national arts and crafts items and organise a debate at 10am on the theme “The participation of foreigners in the economic, politic, social e cultural life of the city ”. At 1.30 those present may taste 23 different national and regional dishes and at 3pm there will be a display of folkloristic singing and dancing. The day will conclude with the extraction of raffle prize winners at 7pm. Ethnic communities from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America will play a leading part in a day long festival started at the initiative of the Scalabrini Fathers on 3 May 1992 to create space for dialogue between different cultures and traditions and increase awareness in church realities and the entire city with regard to the phenomenon of immigration with workshops and animation for children. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 16/5/2007; righe 23; parole 321)
