On September 23, 2025, the Chamber approved the decision to return the day of St. Francis National Festival on 4 October. Waiting for the vote in the Senate, We asked Father Enzo Fortunato what this vote for the Franciscan community represents 800 years after the Canticle of Creatures.
“It is a day of celebration: the road opened because on October 4, a day dedicated to San Francesco d’Assisi, patron of Italy, returns to be officially national feast: only the ratification of the Senate is now missing to complete the path: the party was established for the first time with the law 24 June 1939, n. 810, issued by Pope Pius XII and implemented by the Italian state after the Lateran Pacts). It is an important step that returns to the whole country the opportunity to recognize itself in the figure of a man capable of speaking to believers and non -believers, to indicate the path of fraternity and peace “.
You are about to publish a book entitled: If Francesco returnedwhile the way of peace seems so impervious. What world would you find, if he returned?
«Yesterday as today the world is crossed by deep conflicts and lacerations. Francesco placed himself as a repairer. That mandate that the Crucifix of San Damiano places him in his heart goes and repairs, keeps his crystalline purity and his dramatic topical intact. It is up to each of us from politicians to simple man as people who try to remember, repair, to start again. Only in this way, day after day, is it possible to propose themselves as men and women of peace ».
What do you know about the path that led to this vote?
«Behind this result there is a long and tenacious commitment, which deserves to be remembered. On the impulse of the friars of Assisi, in 2005, Giuseppe Giulietti signed a bill for the national party to return to 4 October. I remember that the then Treasury Minister, Giulio Tremonti, wanted to add “without any economic aggravation for the state”. Today a definitive step forward will be made to declare it officially national feast. From 2005 to today, the desire for this legislative recognition has emerged every year. That’s why today is a day of celebration ».
What can this formalization represent for believers and non -believers, beyond the day of rest?
«A shared moment of identity and hope. It returns to all of us the sense of a living memory, capable of combining the entire national community around a universal message. Francesco is the man who spoke to everyone, overcoming boundaries and differences. He sang the beauty of creation when the word “ecology” still did not exist; He built dialogue bridges when the walls seemed the only possible defense. And he left us an appeal that crosses the centuries: “The Lord gives you peace”, the greeting with which he turned to every person encountered, making himself a messenger of reconciliation. On October 4th he reminds us that Italy has this call to fraternity in its DNA: the patron of Italy is not only a religious symbol, but a concrete invitation to keep creation, to disarm hearts, to promote social peace. Making this date again means this date means giving time and space to a dream that does not belong only to the past. It is a commitment that appeals to us today: to be artisans of peace, custodians of the common house, builders of an Italy that knows how to recognize himself in the simplicity and strength of the Gospel of Francis. This day is not a goal, but a new beginning. St. Francis represents beautiful, open and inclusive Italy ».
