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At these decisive moments for the future of Europe, the Pier Giorgio Frassati Association, which has its headquarters in Rome, is promoting a worldwide rosary to be prayed for Europe on April 6th: for peace, “for the faith of its people and for the rediscovery of the Christian values that are at its core.”
This event is being planned as a gift for the young blessed on the occasion of the anniversary of his birth.
The invitation, set forth in an official letter, is directed to all the friends of Blessed Pier Giorgio, who died in 1925 at the age of 24, and who was recognized by John Paul II as “a man of the eight Beatitudes.”
Numerous associations, schools, youth groups, and organizations named after Pier Giorgio Frassati, as well as confraternities and Marian shrines from around the world, have already replied confirming their participation.
The Rosary for Europe, according to the organizers, is also being prayed for the intention that “young people feel responsible for rebuilding Europe with these values, encouraged by the example of Pier Giorgio. After the First World War, he committed himself with conviction and enthusiasm to a European student movement for peace called ‘Pax Romana,’” explain the organizers of this initiative. “He understood that for peace a commitment outside the borders of one’s own country was necessary, feeling the fate of other people and other nations as his own.”
“Pier Giorgio’s birthday this year falls close to the elections for the European Parliament,” they add. “Let us not lose ourselves to a sense of exhaustion or mistrust in this wonderful project that is the European Community, in the face of which it is urgent to recover the Christian hopes and prospects that animated its founding fathers.”
Pope Francis, in his address to Rethinking Europe 2017, invites us “to have the courage to work to fully pursue the dream of the founding fathers of a united and concordant Europe.”
“Such a communion of purpose cannot exist without having a spiritual nature, just as Pier Giorgio understood it,” according to the Association, referring to the letters that the blessed wrote to the students of Bonn in January 1923: “We feel within ourselves the entire strength of our Christian love which unites us beyond all national boundaries…You and we as Catholics must bring the breath of goodness that can only spring from faith in Christ.”
“What better gift could we give Pier Giorgio than responding to Francis’s invitation by praying together?” explain the promoters of the initiative. “We will say the Rosary together for all of these intentions, and supported by Pier Giorgio we will pray to Our Lady, whom he loved so much, whose crown of 12 stars shines on the flag of the European Community, to restore her a soul.”
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The Association has created a handout in various languages for the reciting of the Rosary, which can be downloaded from the website www.tipiloschi.com .
You can confirm your participation in the Rosary for Europe by sending an email to the address of the Pier Giorgio Frassati Association info@piergiorgiofrassati.org or info@tipiloschi.com .
The names of participating associations, groups, etc. will be listed on the website www.tipiloschi.com.
Among the signers of the convocation are Wanda Gawrońska, president of the Pier Giorgio Frassati Association; Father Michele Falabretti, who is in charge of the national service for youth ministry of the Italian Episcopal Conference; and Marco Sermarini, who is in charge of the Tipi Loschi Society of Grottamare.
This Society takes its name from a society that Pier Giorgio had founded with his friends who were passionate mountain climbers, ready to help each other in their spiritual life, living their faith with joy. While their motto was “Few, but good, like macaroni!” they were united by “a pact which knows no earthly boundaries nor temporal limits: union in prayer” (from a letter by Pier Giorgio Frassati to I. Bonini, January 15, 1925).
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And today we celebrate...