Rimini Meeting: anticipation builds for the Pope’s visit; the event opens today with a focus on prisons

Meanwhile, today, on the opening day of the meeting, there will be a focus on prisons, entitled ‘Life Beyond the Walls’. Among the initiatives featured is that of the Milan-based cooperative CDS (Cooperativa di Solidarietà Sociale), which trains electrical panel fitters and manufactures panels for leading Italian and international companies. It also employs young people from the Beccaria Institute in Milan, where a fully-fledged workshop operates to teach the trade, as well as young people under the supervision of the juvenile justice system who are not in custody, providing them with in-company training.

But the event in Cl has always also marked a time for political debate, at a stage when preparations are being made for the resumption of political activity following the summer break. In reality, politics never really came to a standstill this summer, with the shadow of the election campaign looming ever larger over the debate. And it is conceivable – to take the internal debate within the Lega as an example – that there will be, for instance, indirect exchanges between Matteo Salvini and Attilio Fontana, both of whom are speakers at the Fair. Topics will include international crises and migrants, as well as energy and development. Among the institutional figures expected to attend are Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola and Vice-President of the European Commission Raffaele Fitto. Ministers expected to attend include: Andrea Abodi, Alessandro Giuli, Francesco Lollobrigida, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Adolfo Urso, Giuseppe Valditara and Paolo Zangrillo. A cross-party meeting will mark the 80th anniversary of the Republic and will feature speeches by, amongst others, Stefano Bonaccini, Maria Elena Boschi and Stefano Patuanelli. Discussions will centre on regional issues with governors and mayors, including Roberto Gualtieri.

The crisis in the Middle East is one of the key issues at the heart of the event; guests will include the Cardinal of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and there will be a testimony from Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of Gaza. There will also be testimonies from Lebanon, Ukraine and Nigeria. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Cardinal of Algiers Jean-Paul Vesco and the Vicar for Southern Arabia, Monsignor Paolo Martinelli, will be travelling to Rimini. The Meeting opens today with a meeting between the sister of Father Jacques Hamel – who was killed in France in 2016 by two Islamic extremists – and the mother of one of the attackers, as an example of a journey of forgiveness and hope.