Benedict XVI: “Testify in our time that great things that the human hearth yearns are in God”

What is the human being, what does it make irreducible to any power, to any ideology, to any circumstance. That is the main theme of the XXXI edition that will start in Rimini tomorrow until Saturday 28th of August. ”That nature which pushes us to desire great things is the heart” is the Meeting 2010 title; testimonies, experiences, women and men from all the world to document which is the every man’s real nature.

In a culture that tends to delete “the man’s humanity”, the “mancamento e voto” expressed by Leopardi in his Zibaldone, the affirmation of a purely materialistic conception of life is the main risk. The provocation contained in the title affirms the opposite concept. Human nature is first of all his heart that expresses himself as the desire of great things. That tension is the unmistakable human’s line, the spark of every action, from job to family, from scientific research to politics, from art to the affront of the daily needs.

The Meeting starts with Benedict XVI’s wish to “Testify in our time that “great things” that the human heart yearns are in God”. “Every man- says the message with the Secretary of State cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s firm, sending to the Meeting participants the Pope’s greeting and apostles’ benediction- perceives that in the realization of the deepest desires of his heart can find the possibility to realize, to come true, to really become himself”.

A first deepening about this theme will be during the conference with Stefano Alberto, Professor of Introduction in Theology at the Catholic University Sacro Cuore in Milan.

The Irish President Mary McAleese will open the Meeting; and then will start a course between the appointments with the Hungarian primate Erdo and the metropolitan Filaret, with the Venice patriarch Scola, with the round table with the Minister Fratttini and the representative of different countries such as Senegal, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, the presence of the UE President Barroso and the closing conference with the French philosopher Hadjadj.

And also as a full program each year: 135 Meeting, 8 shows, 19 performances and 346 characters. During the week many guests will arrive in Rimini such as the lawyers Weiler and Kretzmer, scientists such as Edward Nelson, clergymen also from other religions as the bishop of Regensburg Muller, Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland Martin, Cardinal Tauran, the imam of Bordeaux mosque Oubrou, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See Miguel Diaz and the representative of the American administration DuBois, the Fiat managing director Marchionne, showmen as Stefano Pesce and Giancarlo Gianni. About economy, crisis, its causes and a new conception of man’s work, this is also dedicated an exhibition will be discussed with: Corrado Passera, Emma Marcegaglia, Cesare Geronzi, Raffaele Bonanni, Paolo Scaroni and the Minister of economy Tremonti. And finally, a policy-related issues, from human desire with, among others, ministers Sacconi, Alfano, Maroni and characters such as Giuliano Amato, Luciano Violante and Enrico Letta.

The challenge for all, for visitors, guests and more than 3000 volunteers, 20 countries of the world present, is to defend the human, reaffirm its deepest aspirations, his desire for the infinite, symbolized by Camus’ Caligula, this year’s inaugural show, to find out whether man’s destiny is to Caligula, a desire which remains unfulfilled and become crazy or the possibility that exists in life, work, family and everything that composes something respond to this desire.