Over 100 meetings, initiatives, book presentations and on stage events from 26 to 29 September in Bologna, in the heart of the city in Piazza Maggiore, for the XVI edition of the Franciscan Festival this year on the theme “Through wounds”, a common thread for reflection on the treatment of pain, individual and collective, on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the stigmata received by the Saint of Assisi, at the center of the international conference “Francis, from scars to stigmata” which will introduce the Festival, with the participation of the medievalist Jacques Dalarun, the greatest expert of the work of Saint Francis.
Dialogues, masterly lessons, great protagonists: among others Massimo Recalcati and Stefania Andreoli with Carlotta Vagnoli, who will investigate the wounds of the soul and human relationships, the theologian Fra Paolo Benanti, advisor to Pope Francis on the issues of artificial intelligence, the doctor Pierdante Piccioni who inspired the Rai1 cult series, “Doc. In your hands”, played by Luca Argentero, the sociologists Mauro Magatti and Chiara Giaccardi for a reflection on freedom and environmental regeneration, the philosopher Roberto Mancini, the Franciscans Giovanni Salonia and Antonio Exchange. Justice violated like a wound, the annual Lectura Dantis is entrusted to Marta Cartabia, jurist, former Minister of Justice, first woman to preside over the Constitutional Court: she will comment on Canto III of the Purgatory of the Comedy to talk about earthly and divine justice.
And again there will be the poet and writer Davide Rondoni, president of the National Committee for the 800 years of the death of Saint Francis, one of the most famous Italian podcasters Pablo Trincia and the director of the Libreria Editrice Vaticana Lorenzo Fazzini. Migrations and interreligious dialogue will be discussed in the meeting with the Archbishop of Marseille Jean-Marc Aveline and Brother Stefano Luca, responsible for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue for the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia; of war in the Middle East, dialogue with Islam and humanitarian missions with Brother Francesco Patton, Custos of the Holy Land, the internationally renowned immunologist Alberto Mantovani, the director of Doctors with Africa CUAMM Don Dante Carraro, and the young creator Pietro Morello. The singer Giovanni Caccamo, the lawyer and activist Cathy La Torre, the Italian national basketball team with Down Syndrome (gold in the last World Cup in Antalya) will speak on the unstoppable scourge of violence against women and how to guarantee equal opportunities for all. On the programme, the commentary on the text of Saint Francis “Praises of God Most High” by the philologist Giuseppina Brunetti and the theologian Pietro Messa, the cartoons of smiles and evangelical thoughts by Don Giovanni Berti (Gioba), the curator of the YouTube channel Religione Online, Lorenzo Galliani, the theologian and writer Paolo Curtaz, the young French friar and writer Sylvain Detoc.
