VICARIATE OF ROME

Press Release

“Mending the Tear: Beyond Inequalities”

Diocesan Assembly with Pope Francis

On Friday 25 October, at 5:30 p.m., in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the Holy Father will meet with the diocesan community for the conclusion of the “(In)equalities” journey, carried out since February on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the conference “The responsibility of Christians in the face of the expectations of charity and justice in the city of Rome”. Bishop Baldo Reina and the journalist Marco Damilano will speak.

On Friday 25 October, at 5:30 p.m., in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the assembly of the diocese of Rome will be held at which Pope Francis will speak. The meeting is promoted at the conclusion of the project “(In)equalities”, carried out since February on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the conference ‘The responsibility of Christians in the face of the expectations of charity and justice in the city of Rome”, which was held from 12 to 15 February 1974 and is known as the conference on the “evils of Rome”.

Vice-gerent BIshop Baldo Reina will introduce the afternoon of prayer and reflection. This will be followed by a speech by the journalist Marco Damilano, who will offer participants a summary of the journey made in recent months with “(In)equalities”, with the help of two witnesses. In conclusion, the Holy Father will speak. Representatives of institutions and civil society are invited.

The heads of local administrations will be given a handbook collecting the work done by the diocese through “(In)equalities”. Begun on 19 February with a conference in the Aula della Conciliazione, which aimed in particular to commemorate what had happened fifty years earlier, with the conference of February 1974, the journey continued with a series of meetings dedicated to different areas where the dynamics of exclusion and inequality are strongest in our city: school, health, housing, work. Meetings were held in peripheral and highly symbolic locations: the IIS Edoardo Amaldi site in Castelverde; the Tor Vergata Hospital; the Bastogi residence; and the “La Nuova Arca” cooperative in Castel di Leva. During each appointment the protagonists of that particular field spoke, from students to health workers, from local associations to economists and experts. There was no shortage of so-called “shoots of hope”, i.e. those virtuous examples from which to start again in an attempt to resolve, at least in part, some of those “evils” that, today as fifty years ago, continue to afflict the city of Rome.

“Fifty years on”, comments Bishop Reina, “we felt the need to reflect on the ills of Rome today and on the responsibilities of Christians in the face of these inequalities. The meetings experienced in the four areas have strengthened our conviction that the Church's presence in the public debate is more necessary than ever. Saint Paul also says this in his letter to the Philippians: Christians should behave as ‘citizens worthy of the Gospel’. We do not claim to solve everything, but we can offer our contribution, our prophetic outlook and our proposals of hope, in a spirit of cooperation with civil institutions and in particular with the world of voluntary work”.

Journalists and media workers who wish to attend must apply no later than 24 hours before the event, exclusively via the Holy See Press Office accreditation system, at press.vatican.va/accreditamenti.

3 October 2024