by Ken Thomas
I had the privilege last month of visiting Rimini for the 47th Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, held each August on Italy’s Adriatic coast. Little known in this country, the Meeting has drawn crowds since 1980: a week-long encounter of faith and culture — talks, exhibits, performances, and sport — organized by the lay movement, Communion and Liberation.
This year’s theme comes from Dante’s Divine Comedy — “the love that moves the sun and the other stars” — a verse that could almost be Francis himself, who praised God through Brother Sun and the stars in his Canticle of the Creatures. It drew 90,000 participants and nearly 800,000 digital encounters. The Meeting welcomed Pope Leo XIV.
Our Christian faith generates culture, good works, and friendships — and from the beginning, the Meeting has sought to be a place of encounter and dialogue. When Pope John Paul II visited in 1982, he entrusted those gathered with a task: to build, through this friendship, the civilization of love. Forty-four years later, Pope Leo XIV took up that same appeal.
What inspired me most were the friendships of encounter — especially among the youth. In the crowded exhibit halls, where families and young people were everywhere, the Church is definitely alive! Pope Leo treasured the exhibit, “In the Footsteps of Augustine.” For us as Franciscans, Augustine’s community of one heart on the way to God is the fraternity and unity that animates our life.
And in his address comments, Pope Leo called the Meeting “a crossroads for the Church and for society …an encounter that gives rise to further encounters” — and told young people that “the future is a promise, not a threat.” (Read the full address here.)
Rimini’s exhibits seemed to draw participants in, rather than merely inform — exactly what our ministries do when we make our stories of faith visible. The Franciscan Federation’s new Piazza app is another wonderful place of encounter. Like an Assisi town square, the Piazza multiplies encounters — a place where religious communities and lay faithful can meet to share, learn, and grow, bringing our own digital expositions to life.
Several digital spaces already point the way on the Piazza: Connection Circle, Main Square, and an ambitious upcoming project with the Franciscan Central Archive, the new archives and library being planned in Frankfort, Illinois. The planned Center will be a place for collections preservation, research, and storytelling of the lives, ministries, and witness of fourteen US Franciscan Sister Congregations. the Piazza, as digital space, may help us bring these stories to life beyond the walls of the new building itself.
Being in Rimini, also reminded me to give a shout out to the Francis Effect podcast (francisfxpod.com) — an encounter of its own, where Dan Horan, Heidi, and David discuss culture & politics from our shared Franciscan and Catholic faith. It’s the podcast’s 10th year!
I would especially encourage communities — religious, lay, and interfaith — and each of you to consider what you can bring to the Piazza. Clare and Francis lived out stories of the Gospel and carried them from persons to persons — Augustine sought unity and Pope Leo urged encounter at Rimini. How might the Piazza deepen our friendships and give rise to further encounters — new pathways across ministries, distance, and the whole Franciscan community?
Ken Thomas
Franciscan Renewal Center
Scottsdale, AZ
