16 October 2024
Parent Category: Tutte le Attività (EN) -
Category: Anno 2024
Secretary General Professor Michele Capasso - accompanied by Pia Molinari - during a cordial meeting with Pope Francis dedicated the first copy of the book "United States of the World. A History Truly of God".
A large part of the one thousand two hundred pages - testifying to the choral action carried out by the "United States of the World" over the last forty years - is dedicated to Pope Francis.
The Pontiff lingered at length flipping through the pages in which, with a selection of images accompanying the text, the main stages of his pontificate are witnessed: the meeting with SG Capasso in Luján (Argentina) in 2008, the first trip to Lampedusa in 2013 and the meeting with members of the "United States of the World" engaged on the island in the "Peace Laboratories", the trips to Manila and other parts of the world, up to the recent trips to Asia, Oceania, Luxembourg and Belgium.
Moved, the Holy Father relived many significant moments: from the meeting for inter-religious dialogue in Abu Dhabi (September 2019) to the solitude of the "Way of the Cross in St. Peter's Square" (April 2020); from his dialogues with Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini to his incessant appeals for peace, against all wars; from his meeting in the Vatican with Shimon Peres, Abu Mazen and Bartholomew I (June 2014) to his recent visit to Venice with young people (April 2024); from his weeping before the statue of the Immaculate Conception in Rome (December 2022) to his participation in the G7 in Puglia (June 2024); from his meeting with Queen Elizabeth II (April 2014) to his meeting with the Salesians in Turin (June 2024); from the Naples Colloquium on the Mediterranean (June 2019) to his meeting with the Jesuits in Belgium (September 2024); from his visit to the "Totem for Peace" in the port of Naples with the urn of the "Unknown Migrant" (March 2015) to his prayers in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
At the end of the meeting, Pope Francis thanked for the "filial devotion" and personally took the book, thanking for the "precious gift", calling it "This is the Book of the Heart". Then, turning to Michele Capasso and Pia Molinari he exclaimed:
‘Read my new encyclical in the coming days, it is dedicated precisely to the Heart of Jesus... and do not forget to pray for me!’