ABOUT THE COMMUNITY
The Community of Sant’Egidio began in Rome in 1968 with a group of high school students who wanted to take the Gospel more seriously. Today it is a movement consisting of over 40,000 Christian laypeople in more than 60 countries throughout the world.
Prayer, solidarity, friendship, peace, ecumenism, and interreligious dialogue are central to the life of the Community. The services of each Community around the world develop through the fostering of intimate friendships with the poor, elderly, immigrants, and children who are our neighbors in the cities in which we live. Not only have Communities been tearing down the walls of prejudice, fear, and loneliness that separate us from one another within our own cities, but many Communities throughout the world have also realized dreams of friendship across international borders. Friendship, always at the starting point, has led to a peace agreement to cease civil war in Mozambique and to Project DREAM, an HIV/AIDS treatment program in sub-Saharan Africa. Communities have entered prison cells to discover a lasting hope and friendship that radiate past locked doors. Friendship with prison inmates has also led the Community to strongly oppose the death penalty. Communities throughout the world have set up Schools of Peace wherever children need a safe place to learn, to build friendships and strong foundations for peace.
The Vatican has officially recognized the Community of Sant’Egidio as a public lay association. – from the United States Sant’Egidio page at http://santegidiousa.org
See their main page at http://www.santegidio.org/index.php?&idLng=1064
See also their Cities for Life campaign which is opposed to capital punishment.
BBC Profile: The Community of Sant’Egidio
Austen Ivereigh, “Changing the World Via the Crucified: The Community of Sant’Egidio”,
Creating Peace In War Zones: The Roman Catholic Community Of Sant’Egidio By Katherine Marshall
Religious peacemaking in a secular world: An interview with Andrea Bartoli by Nathan Schneider
