[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 24 (Monday, June 18, 2007)]
[Pages 774-775]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Discussion With Members of the Community of Sant'Egidio in 
Rome, Italy

June 9, 2007

    The President. I want to thank the good folks of Sant'Egidio for 
joining us. Sant'Egidio is one of the great faith-based organizations in 
the world. And we're here to talk about our common commitment to help 
the poor, feed the hungry, and help eradicate disease. United States is 
firmly committed to helping people on the continent of Africa. We have 
committed in our--and we'll work with our Congress to spend $30 billion 
to deal with HIV/AIDS, over a billion to deal with malaria, billions to 
deal with hunger, money to deal with education.
    But these programs cannot be effective without loving people on the 
ground helping a neighbor in need. I want to thank you for being a part 
of the international army of compassion. I thank you for hearing the 
call to love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. I'm 
looking forward to hearing your strategies in dealing with some of the 
most difficult problems in the world. I'm proud of your organization, 
and I thank all members of your organization for being such loving 
souls.
    Thank you for having us here.
    Marco Impagliazzo. Thank you, Mr. President. Before our strategy, 
some little word about our community, with your permission.
    The President. Please.
    Mr. Impagliazzo. The Community of Sant'Egidio was born in Rome, in 
this city, in 1968. At that time, the West was wondering about its 
future and the young people were looking for something. Andrea Riccardi, 
who is the founder of our community, was a student at the time in a high 
school of Rome. He called some of his fellow students to listen and to 
live according to the gospel, gospel of Jesus.
    In those years, people believed that the revolution would change the 
world. Andrea understood that there would have been no lasting chance 
unless the people's hearts were touched by the word of Jesus. This word 
put into practice, man, first of all, to be friends with the poor.
    Today, there are communities of Sant'Egidio in 70 countries, with 
60,000 members all over the world. Its spirituality is founded on 
several pillars--just three pillars, Mr. President. First, prayer, which 
takes place every day in all our communities--a personal prayer, reading 
the Scripture every day, but also common prayer. It means that every 
day, 60,000 people open the Scriptures. They read it and pray to the 
Lord from the beautiful churches of Rome--like the Basilica of Santa 
Maria, Trastevere, that you would have visited--to the hearts of Africa, 
or so many places in the immense lands of Latin America. Mr. President, 
prayer is our friend.
    The second pillar is mission, reaching out to all those who seek and 
ask for a sense of their rights.
    Finally, the third pillar, solidarity with the poor. There's a 
voluntary service carried out for free because no one is paid for his 
service to the poor in our community, no one.
    Gratuitousness, Mr. President, is what our society is missing today. 
Everything is there to buy or to sell. But Jesus said, you received 
without payment, give without payment, Jesus said. This word of Jesus is 
the serve of our member's work. In our study, one thing has always 
proved, too, there is no loss for the poor without pay.
    Christians must live with the freeness of the heart. One never has 
the solution to everything, but we must not close our hearts when we do 
not have a solution. We are all the window of the world. That is why we 
cannot forget demands of the poor peoples of the world.
    So what is striking in our thought is that these signs, signs of 
resurrection, to praise in those very places where it seems there is no 
hope left, like Africa. With your permission, Mr. President, I would 
like to pass now the floor to my friends who work every day in Africa.
    Thank you.
    The President. Thank you very much. Thank you all.

[At this point, the public portion of the event concluded; however, the 
discussion continued, and no transcript was provided.]

[[Page 775]]

Note: The President spoke at 1:01 p.m. at the U.S. Embassy. 
Participating in the discussion were Andrea Riccardi, founder, Marco 
Impagliazzo, president, Mario Giro, director for international affairs, 
and members Cristina Marazzi, Leonardo Palombi, Elard Sadimba Allumando, 
Beatrice Kun Adon, and Claudio Betti, Community of Sant'Egidio. A 
portion of these remarks could not be verified because the tape was 
incomplete.