• Message of Pope Francis at the Rimini Meeting: "Migrants and marginalized people, not numbers"

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17 August 2019 The Rimini Meeting kicks off. The ribbon cutting of the 40th edition is entrusted this year to the president of the Senate, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, who will take part in the inaugural conference "Person and social friendship", with the introduction of Emilia Guarnieri, president of the Foundation Meeting for the friendship between peoples, and the president of the Foundation for Subsidiarity Giorgio Vittadini.

The inaugural day will then continue with debates on some of the fundamental themes of the # meeting19: the positive but also controversial aspects of artificial intelligence; a reflection on democracy; the conflict between individual conscience and reason of state and between moral law and positive law.


Mattarella: "Facing the new with courage"
"It is necessary to face the new with courage, without paralyzing nostalgia, always maintaining a critical spirit and openness to those close to us": this is the nodal point of the message sent by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella to the Meeting. "Starting again from the person - writes Mattarella - is a path of growth and liberation to which we are continually referred. In this process, each must know how to find the meaning and value of the community, indeed contribute to building it by weaving the human threads of solidarity "." The Meeting - concludes Mattarella, who also wanted to thank the volunteers at work - was in his story animating dialogue and the hope is that on this important anniversary you will find the further impulse to render service to the society'".

The Pope: "Migrants and marginalized people are people, not numbers"
The heart of the message sent by Pope Francis to the Rimini Meeting is dedicated to the suffering of migrant people. "Many of our contemporaries fall under the blows of the trials of life, and find themselves alone and abandoned. And often they are treated as numbers in a statistic. We think of the thousands of individuals who flee wars and poverty every day: before they are numbers, they are faces , people, names and stories. We must never forget it, especially when the culture of waste marginalizes, discriminates and exploits, threatening the dignity of the person ", writes the pontiff.

"The man of today often lives in insecurity, walking as if groping, alien to himself; he seems to have no consistency anymore, so much is it true that he easily lets himself be seized by fear" we still read in the Pope's message, signed by the Vatican secretary of state, card. Pietro Parolin and addressed to the bishop of Rimini, Msgr. Francesco Lambiasi, in which it is underlined again that this is "an era where people are often faceless, anonymous figures because they have no one to lay their eyes on".

But there is something that "makes the Christian a presence in the world different from all the others": bringing "the announcement of which, without knowing it, the men and women of our time are more thirsty: it is between we the one who is the hope of life. We will be "original" - concludes the Pope's message - if our face will be the mirror of the face of the risen Christ ".

Scheduled 179 meetings, 625 speakers
There are 179 meetings foreseen by the official program of the 40th edition of the Meeting for friendship among peoples ("Your name was born from what you set", 18-24 August, Rimini Fair), 25 shows, 20 exhibitions , 35 sporting events. 625 speakers who will take part in the meetings. The numbers include the 38 book presentation meetings, organized by the Italian Association of Cultural Centers (in the "Book corner" space). All meetings and exhibitions are free. Thousands of volunteers work in the stands, which will host the many proposals of the event: 130 thousand square meters occupied by the 2019 Meeting, which uses 12 exhibition halls, the central Hall and 8 connecting pavilions. Outside the large trade fair will be presented the inaugural show "Midnight Barabba" (at the Teatro Galli, in the center of Rimini, on the evening of August 18, with a replica the following day) and some sporting events.