The title of the next Meeting is taken from a speech by Fr Luigi Giussani at the Meeting of Friendship among Peoples in 1985, in which he ardently said: "Christianity was not born to found a religion, it was born as a passion for the person".

He himself lived, announced, communicated, transmitted this passion in a completely extraordinary way, with a surprising affective strength and reasonableness that did not leave indifferent those who met him. He became interested in the person in his singularity and uniqueness, he became a friend of the drama that every life goes through in search of its fulfillment.

One hundred years after his birth, the 2022 Meeting wants to invite us to rediscover this passion that Fr Giussani testified and still bear witness to us through his writings and the life he generated.
We are in a historical moment that confronts us with questions and interrogatives that concern not only some aspects of human life, but the essence of being human, his freedom.

There are many signs that document how one's life is increasingly perceived as an almost random outcome of a biological flow, conditioned by social, economic, ecological and geopolitical circumstances. The more unpredictable or adverse these circumstances become, the more uncertainty increases and confidence is lost. Trying to overcome at all costs any limit, even the limits of one's body, through increasingly sophisticated technologies, relying on political power as an anchor of salvation or taking refuge in the thousand possible distractions are just some of the symptoms of a malaise that more or less consciously cries out a freedom that allows to live now up to owns’ truest and deepest desires.

This freedom does not happen automatically, but is the result of an encounter in which becomes present a strong, unconditional, gratuitous passion for the good and destiny of the person. A passion that is enriched by the beauty of nature and the beauty of art, which is expressed in a work as a construction of a more human world, a passion that expands and feeds on relationships that in turn become the living fabric of a true society, which it is not determined by the State but a source of creativity that the State can only support if it does not want to betray itself.

At the 2022 Meeting we want to give voice to this passion for man, to this passion for man who seeks truth and justice, to this passion for man who suffers from illness, poverty, loneliness, to this passion for man who deludes himself of his own self-sufficiency and power, to this passion for man who is committed to carrying out useful and dignified work, to this passion for children and young people who face the world with curiosity and hope.

We want to meet people who in the family, in the school, in the works, in the enterprises, in art, in sport, in politics and in the relationship between the different religions and cultures bear witness to this passion. We want to dialogue on the opportunities and risks of new technologies and their impact on life, on the possibilities of promoting the ecological transition, on the potential of scientific research, on changes in working life, on the future of health, on the implementation of next  generation eu, on the increasingly incandescent geopolitical challenges.

And we will do so with the certainty of an infinite Passion that already embraces the life of each of us.