Rimini 2006 Surpasses Expectations
Interview With President of Meeting's Association

RIMINI, Italy, AUG. 29, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Rimini Meeting 2006 was a great success, report the event's organizers.

Emilia Guarnieri, president of the Association of the Meeting for Friendship among Peoples, said that the meeting held in the Italian city of Rimini, Italy, from Aug. 20-26, broke all its previous records: There were 700,000 participants, 120 meetings, over 400 speakers, 18 shows, 12 exhibitions and 10 sports tournaments.

In this interview with ZENIT, Guarnieri speaks of the key topics addressed in the annual meeting organized by the movement Communion and Liberation.

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Q: How would you evaluate the success of this year's meeting?

Guarnieri: We thought we reached the best with last year's edition, instead, attendance this year has been greater.

I am especially pleased about the 3,041 volunteers who came to Rimini from all over the world to help us in the organization and development of the meeting. Even young people from Kazakhstan came to participate in the meeting and make it possible.

I think the characteristic of the 27th meeting was one of meeting and dialogue.

This has been the meeting's characteristic since the beginning: We try to create the conditions for those who wish to challenge one another and put their different points of view on the table.

However, the meeting is not a stage; we indicate the underlying theme and values on which we can challenge one another without prejudices.

Q: Topics such as the abortifacient pill, the family, Civil Pacts of Solidarity (PACS) between two persons, including homosexuals, have sparked controversial reactions. How does the meeting deal with issues such as these?

Guarnieri: As Catholics and persons concerned about the social, demographic and anthropological aspects of policies that weaken the conditions of families, we have felt it our duty to present the question in the clearest possible way. That is why we entitled one meeting "From the Family to PACS, A Genetic Mutation," and expressed an articulate and clear opinion.

Controversies arose on some political sides that do not share our idea of the family. The question is delicate because it touches the balance of the majority that governs Italy at this time.

Q: Issues relating to Islam were also discussed, correct?

Guarnieri: The topic of dialogue with Islamic culture was of great importance at the meeting. Moreover, I believe it is a question one must address, and it must be done in an intelligent and reasonable manner.

The presentation of Monsignor Luigi Giussani's book "The Religious Sense," translated into Arabic, seemed relevant to me.

Culturally, it is a most interesting move, because this text can become a further occasion for confrontation and dialogue, not only on the sociological terms, but also on profound terms, on existential terms, with Islamic culture.

Clearly the Arabic translation of a text such as Monsignor Giussani's also fosters cultural debate in the dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

Q: Several Muslim women have criticized the condition of women in societies dominated by the Islamic religion.

Guarnieri: These are serious problems, problems of civilization that must be addressed in a reasonable manner, that is, in respect of the reality and dignity of a person. Our support goes to all those who fight for respect of these rights and the meeting sought to highlight those who fight for the dignity of women.

Q: Never before as in this edition has the need been aroused to discover, further and reinforce the Christian identity. Many figures of secular culture, without Catholic formation, addressed the meeting, speaking about the Christian roots of European culture.

Guarnieri: It's true. On the other hand, we have always maintained that dialogue and coexistence are not the result of watering down identity, but that a strong identity, based on what one believes, on what is lived as experience, allows one to converse and relate to others.

In the world in which we live, relativism, nihilism, secularism and fears are leading to a worsening of life. What, then, can one oppose to nihilism, cynicism and skepticism? Only identity, there is no other. It is inevitable.

Moreover, the meeting is a phenomenon that is impressive because it expresses a strong identity, because the 3,000 volunteers work for free, because they believe in it, and because in their work they experience what they believe. This experience generates a very profound force of identity. This participation becomes a testimony, because it becomes a human experience.

Q: Last year you stressed that the meeting's theme was discussed annually with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. And now that the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been elected Pontiff?

Guarnieri: It is true that we always discussed and reflected further on the theme of the meeting with then-Cardinal Ratzinger, as it is true that this year we have not done so, and I don't know what will happen next year.

Anyway, we have already announced the theme for the 28th Rimini Meeting: "The Truth and the End for Which We Were Made."