September 20, 2012 - September 23, 2012
European Youth to Auschwitz for a World without Violence
III International Gathering
The third International Meeting “Young Europeans for a World without Violence”, promoted by the Community of Sant’ Egidio, took place in Auschwitz and Cracow from 20th to 23th September 2012. The participants included young people from the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary.
Friday, September 21, after visiting Museum Auschwitz concentration camp, the young people had a silent march and laid wreaths at the Memorial Monument Birkenau to the victims of the camp and proclaimed in the various languages a “call for World Peace”.
The Community of Sant’ Egidio began in Rome in 1968 in the period following the Second Vatican Council. Today it is a movement of lay people with more than 50,000 members, dedicated to evangelisation and charity, in Rome, Italy and in more than 70 countries throughout the world.
It is a “Church public lay association”. The different communities, spread throughout the world, share the same spirituality and principles which characterize the spirit of Sant’ Egidio:
Prayer, Communicating the Gospel, Solidarity with the poor, Ecumenism, Dialogue.
At the request of Pope John Paul II every year the Community organizes interreligious meetings “In the spirit of Assisi”. These meetings began in 1986 and continue until today.