Germany - The Youth for Peace and the shipwrecked in the Mediterranean: against indifference, for a more human and solidary culture

In front of the tragedy that has been unfolding for years in the Mediterranean, with the death of thousands of migrants and men, women and children seeking asylum, the Community of Sant’Egidio works to build in various European countries a culture of mercy and acceptance, and to offer an outstretched hand, some help and comfort to those who manage to reach land. 

Among the many initiatives of solidarity, prayer and discussion which the European communities have organized over the past weeks, in particular after the death of about 900 migrants in the Channel of Sicily, we note the invitation issued by Sant’Egidio’s Youth for Peace in Germany. The invitation is addressed to the students of various high schools to share with them a gesture of

humanity and acceptance, to say “No” to a culture of indifference and rejection, and “Yes” to a different culture, of responsibility and the sacredness of life.

In various schools and squares in Berlin, Würzburg, Mönchengladbach, Munich, etc. the young high school students from Sant’Egidio and elsewhere left flowers to remember the victims of the voyages of hope, reading aloud the stories of some of the refugees, discovering together that - as Pope Francis recently reminded us - they “are men and women like us, people in search of happiness”.