They said about us
I traveled around the world many times but i never met anything similar to this. Thousands of people come here to listen to a lesson about Beethoven, to visit an exhibition about the origin of light, or to attend a conference with a philosopher. The Meeting has to be experienced, lived in order to understand its full and extraordinary combination of vitality and gravitas.
Joseph H. H. Weiler, University professor at New York University
The Meeting where nothing ends, and everything restarts.
William Congdon
The Bible teaches us that man was created in the image of God; this means that we are spiritual beings, that we need spiritual nourishment. The Meeting incarnates this great intuition.
Aharon Appelfeld, writer
The Meeting... had i been able to live longer in it, perhaps my life would have changed: no more violence, no more hate, no rivalry or competition but only collaboration among friends, a deep understanding among people of good will. Did i meet a kind of sanctity here? I'd say so.
Eugéne Ionesco, playwright
Thanks to a friendship of many years, i have learned many things from the Rimini Meeting. The most important perhaps is that the basis of dialogue is the difference. The dialogue, in fact, must be based on an encounter, because in an encounter the person has been placed in your life, another person is there so you can begin to discover her or him.
Wael Farouq, Professor at the Sacred Heart Catholic University of Milan
There was a people there, that is, there was an immense crowd of common people who had the desire to stay together but also to meet people that are different from them.
Gianpaolo Pansa
They created a place where you can meet a subject. The presence is this: a place. The generation of the adult, that makes one's own life present outside itself, is a place where you can meet a subject.
Father Luigi Giussani
I found a great openness, a great receptivty of different ideas, a great welcome, profoundly religious. But religious with warmth and acceptance of the three religions. At the Meeting everybody knew very well that i was a truly Jewish believer, but they desired to listen to me. (...)
But their warmth and their deep openness made me happy.
Chaim Potok, writer
Through places like the Meeting we can build a new generation of media.
William McGurn, a columnist with the Wall Street Journal
I never had such an audience; after meeting these young people in Rimini i am more optimistic about the future of humanity.
Abdus Salam, Nobel laureate in Physics in 1979
I am happy to go to the Meeting because there they build a real culture.
Ennio Morricone, musician
A precious item of the system Italy.
Franco Frattini, former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
What amazes me about this Meeting is the fact that all the subjects are connected to each other; you have a different way of talking about things.
John Waters, a columnist with the Irish Times
This first visit left great emotions and great marks on my heart looking at a great Christian community.
Tahani Al-Jibaly, Vice President of the Constitutional Court in Egypt
We share with you the certainty that unity through diversity is an ideal to embrace, not something to fear. We have never seen an event like the Meeting, able to bring together people with sincerity. Each one of the persons encountered here has left a mark on us.
Ivan Caracalla, Director of the Caracalla Dance Theatre
You can leave violence behind by building a true friendship. This is what i see even here at the Rimini Meeting, a friendship that generates a great cultural event.
S.Ecc. Mons. Ignatius Kaigama, Nigerian Archbishop
Bring, in this time of uncertainty, your longing for certainty. It is for all this that you represent a human resource for our country. Make it even worthier.
Giorgio Napolitano, former President of the Italian Republic
Here you have the feeling that somebody or something was waiting for you [...] Tell the truth to today's mankind, first of all by living it.
Eugenio Mazzarella, Professor of Philosophy
It's a wonderful place. What mostly impressed me are the volunteers, the young faces. Here's the vital power of faith. I'd like to bring this experience to China.
Tianeyue Wu, Professor of Philosophy, China
Here i'm struck by inspiration and wonder. We want to learn what we see here. The doors are open and you feel no interest in politics which drives people to do things, not are lessons given. You can feel faith, and is free.
Vladimir Vorob'ev, Rector of Orthodox University Saint Tichon
Everyone should vist the Meeting's exhibiton about Europe! It shows our past and our future.
Enrico Letta, former President of the Council of Ministers
Here at the Meeting i'm really experiencing the enthusiasm, positivity and energy i've always heard about.
Alberto Onetti, Mind the Bridge Foundation
