VENICE – “With the emotions of the meeting a few weeks ago in Venice still alive, I am honored to welcome Pope Francis to the Veneto again, and with the same emotion. Two such close occasions in our land represent a truly exceptional fact for a historical event in itself such as the Pope’s visit. Once again I am sure that I will give a voice to all the Venetians in saying: Welcome back!”.
With these words the President of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia welcomes the arrival of Pope Francis next Saturday in Verona.
“Peace is the recurring message in the Holy Father’s interventions, an insistent warning against the many outbreaks of war that deny this human aspiration, and it is also the official theme of this visit – underlines the Governor -. We are honored by this, in the awareness that Verona, like Venice, is one of the symbolic places that can give added value to this universal appeal. If Venice, in fact, is culturally the bridge between West and East, the Scaliger territory is geographically and historically the crossroads between cultures and populations from North to South, those that along the Adige find the direct connection between Central Europe and the Plain Po Valley. This is Veneto: a land of meetings, exchanges, relationships”.
The President continues: “Pope Francis’ visit will confirm that Veneto is a land of Peace. Not only because the Leo Marciano says so in the flag but also because he has suffered the drama of war too often in history. The hills, mountains and countryside that were once theaters of death are today, for our region, reasons for life and well-being. Just as cities in the last century, reduced to rubble by bombs, are centers of study and progress. As Venetians, children of a land that has known centuries of poverty and massive emigration to all continents, we can consciously say that today’s prosperity, although put to the test in recent years, has matured with a lot of hard work from our parents only in the longest period of peace we have known. Peace and work are the engine that has allowed our region to become one of the most important and advanced production districts in the world. An achievement, however, which has not made Venetian society indifferent to the needs of those left behind because in its DNA it has retained its roots in Christian culture to the point of making it an identity principle in which today not only believers but also lay people recognize themselves in a heritage of common history. Pope Francis’ visit to Verona surpasses the religious value of the event and represents another great chapter in this story.”
