The campaign began at the start of October with the Pope in the Vatican Gardens and will continue until October 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. This allows dioceses, parishes, schools, communities, and families on different continents to choose th

“Only when peace embraces everyone is it truly peace.” Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi began his homily by reflecting on a world marked, today as centuries ago, by “terrible wars, a madness that drives people mad”.

The Cardinal presided at Mass this morning in Assisi on the feast of Saint Francis and the eighth centenary of his death, which occurred on 3 October 1226 at the Portiuncula. Concelebrating were Bishop Felice Accrocca of Assisi–Nocera Umbra–Gualdo Tadino and Foligno, the ministers of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, and Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, Papal Legate for the Papal Basilicas of Assisi.

The Basilica of Saint Francis was packed with faithful, with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in attendance alongside institutional representatives from across Italy—whose patron saints are Saint Francis and Saint Catherine of Siena—and several other countries.

In his homily, the Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference recalled the Poverello of Assisi as a “living image of Christ”, “full of joy”, a “poet of life”, who sang of creation’s “wholly human and wholly divine beauty”.