After a long march that began on May 5 from the Milan Central Station, the parchment letter with the Declinations of the meaning of the word peace On the part of many immigrants present in Italy it was piled by the writer Eraldo refined in the hole of the Vatican letters in St. Peter’s Square.
A project that involved the foreign pupils of the Penny Wirton schools in Italy, present in 65 Italian cities and which offers free teaching of the Italian language to migrants. The writer’s idea was born by resuming The letter that on July 29, 1999 was found in the pockets of two African kids who died at the trolley of a plane started by Guinea Conakry and landed in Brussels. A very current testimony that conveyed simple messages, requests such as food, education and health.
The path thus touched some of the most important features of the goes francigenawhere together with many boys there were unforgettable moments such as that of the white smoke experienced in Celolle monastery: “I was participating in the Vespers, it was about 18.30, then we saw the images of the new Pope, we were with a cell phone in the middle of the countryside and we heard that word peace spoken by Pope Leone XIV, word on which our project was based”.
From Milan to Parma. From Mazzarosa to Siena, the meeting with many immigrant kids was a life experience for the writer: «These words of mine are the result of our lifethey are not literary inventions, “says Affinati while remembering the conversation with a Ukrainian boy from Kharkiv during the journey:« He told me that his language is Russian, but that he felt his mother tongue as the enemy’s language And this gave me so much to reflect ».
In St. Peter’s Square in Rome, May 14thAnna Luce Lenzi, wife of Affinati and founder together with the writer of the Penny Wirton schools, waited in hand the parchment hencen to be given to the dad the other part of the group with the refined heads that instead walked on foot from the insurgent park. Once reunited, the stop at Palazzo Best took place, donated by Pope Francis to the community of Sant’Egidio: “There I heard a pronounced words of the guy from a player guy we have to be friends, not enemies, and with a very tragic experience he said that peace is to give a piece of bread to those who need it”.
After the delivery of the letter where immigrants have entrusted to the word peace dreams, wounds and desires the memory goes straight to those very first words spoken by Pope Leo XIV: “Peace is with you”. For Affinati it is a word that cannot be confused in the midst of many others: «You have to have courage to use this word, often it is not pronounced in order not to confuse it in the midst of many others, as is the case for the word love, these immigrant guys I encountered have had the courage to pronounce it. I think you have to be able to be able to propose actions capable of legitimizing our words“Concludes the writer spokesmen of many boys from Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Uganda, Congo, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Columbia, Peru, China, Albania, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt. Once the hope and the prayer is delivered that Pope Leo XIV can convey all these forms on the word peace among the powerful of the earth, as he is already doing.
In the photo, Eraldo refined, on the left, with Professor Piero Armanini, head of the Penny Wirton school in Parma in front of the Vatican letters hole.
