24 August 2025
Mario is a volunteer at the cash desk and speaks of the Meeting as an exceptional place where you have a wonderful experience of service to the person. Mario felt welcomed, and seeing the attention that others had for him brought out the fascination of working together, all for the same purpose. His wife Rosaria also volunteered at the cash desks and this made her perceive the Meeting as "hers".
Mario emphasizes the importance that the provocation of becoming a volunteer 3 years ago represented for him, as it changed the way he lived the Meeting in which he had participated for years. "I enjoy the Meeting more" says Mario "It seems a paradox but being a volunteer makes me feel more and more the protagonist of this wonderful work". This year Mario is also involved in the moderation of the meeting "Anxious or thirsty? Young people in search of meaning", on 27 August, which aims to begin a reflection on youth distress to grasp the reasons for the many changes that today's generation of young people is experiencing, to try to understand how to intervene as adults. For Rosaria, who has been participating in the Meeting for some time, the turning point was the Children's Village. Accompanying her children there, she understood that the Meeting is a beautiful experience for everyone, because it involves every age group. The proposals of the Children's Village, workshops, meetings, exhibitions and shows, make you feel part of what happens at the Meeting, with contents also declined for the little ones. Rosaria says that the experience of volunteer work was important because it led her to active participation, to live the work of the Meeting as something that she also builds.
For Mario, the heart of the Meeting is the possibility of a free dialogue, where the approach is a positive prejudice against the other, looked at as good for oneself. It is from this openness to the other that an intense dialogue begins and takes place in which everyone can make their own contribution. The fact that the first meeting of the Meeting is "Mothers for Peace" is very significant for Mario because it highlights how the Meeting is a real place of dialogue where we can get to the bottom of what is happening, and understand how these two mothers, who have gone through suffering, have found within it the strength to look at the other in a new way.
Rosaria, thinking about the words of Pope Leo XIV on unity and mission, emphasizes that "The Meeting is this unity that allows a common construction and launches everyone towards the mission, bringing to everyone and to me the good that is needed to live".
Mario and Rosaria make their contribution to the Meeting not only with voluntary work but also as donors. Getting involved to the point of giving one's own economic contribution, each with what they can, for Mario and Rosaria means wanting the Meeting to be more and more part of their lives and testifying how much they care about this beautiful work. For Mario, supporting the Meeting is an education to ensure that what you experience in Rimini can become part of your way of dealing with reality.
