From 31 May to 3 June and with
the presence of the International Raoul Wallenberg
Foundation, the International Conference "Revisitare
Giovanni XXIII", a meeting organized by the
University of Bologna and the Foundation for the
Religious Science John XXIII, took place.
The conference , in which philosophers,
historians and scholars from all over the world
participated, had as objective the commemoration
of the life and work of whom is known as the "Good
Pope".
His baptismal name was Angelo
Giussepe Roncalli. He had been born in Bergamo,
Italy, on 25 November 1881. He passed away during
his pontiff, on 4 June 1963.
On the 40th anniversary of his
death, history remembers him as one of the most
renewing and powerful Popes, especially in the field
of the interconfessional dialogue.
In the year 2000 the Wallenberg
Foundation, created by the Argentine Baruch Tenembaum,
who leads the interfaith dialogue in Latin America,
decided to initiate the activities of the Angelo
Roncalli International Committee. The ceremony,
organized by the president of the Pontific Council
"Justice and Peace", Archbishop Renato
Martino, took place at the Legation of the Holy
See to the UN. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary
of State, who attended the inaugural ceremony, approved
the initiative with enthusiasm.
As Apostolic Delegate of the
Vatican to Istanbul, Monsignor Roncalli saved the
lives of thousands of Jews and other persecuted
by Nazism.
Mr. Tenembaum had the honor of
closing the conference by reading his presentation
named "The Hebrew
world and Roncalli".
Professor Alberto Melloni, of
the University of Bologna and a renowned specialist
on the life and deeds of the former Pope, opened
the meeting with his conference "Roncallis
soul". With the closure of the encounter he
received from Tenembaum the Roncallis Commemorative
Medal, a work of art specially coined by request
of the IRWF and similar to the one received by Maria
Nicoletta Gaida, President of the Dionysia Center,
in October 2002 during the celebration of the ceremony
"Nostra Aetate".
Among the many activities carried
out to remember Angelo Roncalli it is worth mentioning
the issue of a commemorative postal card launched
by the Argentine Postal Service following an idea
of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
and the Roncalli Committee.
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