Emmanuele Silanos, a missionary priest of the St. Charles Fraternity, discovered the Meeting when he was a boy in high school; he participated as a visitor impressed by an interesting world and life. Then he became a volunteer there and, he says enthusiastically, "I saw the possibility of building something together, of being able to give a contribution for something that the world is waiting for, of putting oneself at the service of a piece of work that everyone needs". Donaora (DonateNow) is also a way of contributing to build this great work that is the Meeting. "Poverty is not slovenliness, poverty is using everything for the building of the Kingdom of God. And to support with a donation is to participate in the building of this world that everyone desires and that is met here at the Meeting."

This year Silanos is one of the curators of the 'Franz and Franziska' exhibition, the exciting story of the Jägerstätter couple that the Rimini Meeting bears witness to. "During covid," Silanos recounts, "we watched Terence Malick's film 'The Hidden Life', then when Pope Ratzinger died, Rachele, a friend of ours from Padua, proposed that we make a pilgrimage to his house, which is close to that of Franz and Franziska in the small Austrian village of Sankt Radegund. On that double pilgrimage we met her daughter and her testimony moved us"

Emmanuele then recounts that in the evening, while they were filming together what they had seen and the words they had heard, one of them said that such an intense and fascinating story should be known as much as possible and asked: "why don't we make an exhibition at the Meeting? From this episode came the pathway and the work that led to the presentation of the 'Franz and Franziska' exhibition at this edition of the Meeting.

"There would not have been Franz's sacrifice - Emmanuele states with conviction and emotion - without Franziska. It is the relationship between them, the love they live, marriage as a human space in which Christ is present, that is the reason for Franz's sacrifice and at the same time what led Franziska to accept his sacrifice and cherish his memory." Franz was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, Franziska died at the age of 100 in 2013, always keeping his memory alive.

Silanos says that while talking to one of his daughters, he asked her what she remembered about her father and she replied that she did not remember anything because she was three years old. He then asked her if she ever had any doubts about his gesture, which many considered excessive. She replied: 'No, no doubts at all! Our mother always told us that she did the right thing!"  

Silanos is fascinated by the story that he and others are telling the Meeting’s visitors. "Franz changed his life when he met Franziska, his ideal became living for Christ. 

He did not seek martyrdom, he lived like all Christians for whom to be a martyr is to give one's life to Jesus Christ. The conditions and modalities in which one gives one's life is decided by Another, for Franz it was being a victim of Nazi hatred, for Franziska living for her entire earthly existence the memory of a great love, for each of us in what we live. All caught up, fascinated by a great ideal that has become concrete, this is being a martyr, living everything for Christ."

The exhibition "Franz and Franziska" is in this edition of the Meeting as a significant challenge to grasp what is essential to live, Franz and Franziska are two unique witnesses of what is worth living for today.