IV 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 775 

Commending the Community of Sant’Egidio for their extensive charity and 

generosity on behalf of the poor throughout the world. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 25, 2006 

Mr. BURTON of Indiana (for himself, Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland, Mr. MEEKS

of New York, and Mr. LANTOS) submitted the following resolution; which 

was referred to the Committee on International Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Commending the Community of Sant’Egidio for their extensive charity and generosity on behalf of the poor throughout the world. 

Whereas the Community of Sant’Egidio began in Rome in 

1968, following the Second Vatican Council, at the initiative of high school student Andrea Riccardi who gathered 

a group of like-minded high-school students to engage 

people in their community with a message of peace and 

dialogue; 

Whereas, upon its founding, the group began working in 

crowded slums on the outskirts of Rome, beginning an 

afternoon school for children called Scuola Popolare, now 

known as Schools of Peace, which has since grown to 


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over 50,000 permanent members in 70 countries and on 

four continents; 

Whereas the Community Sant’Egidio has spread itself 

throughout the world and has assisted additional people, 

including the physically and mentally disabled, homeless, 

foreign immigrants, and terminally ill, and has worked in 

prisons, homes for the elderly, gypsy, and refugee camps; 

Whereas the Community Sant’Egidio helped to mediate the 

conflicting parties in the peace negotiations which led to 

the peace agreement in Mozambique, and it has taken 

part in peace and disarmament negotiations in Burundi, 

the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Sudan, 

and has coordinated humanitarian relief for refugees 

worldwide; 

Whereas Pope John Paul II recognized the Community of 

Sant’Egidio in a message to the 2002 Prayer for Peace, 

saying ‘‘I would like to thank especially the Community 

of Sant’Egidio for the enthusiasm and the spiritual courage shown in accepting the message of Assisi and bringing it to so many places in the world through the meeting 

of men of different religions’’; and 

Whereas the Community Sant’Egidio has received numerous 

awards for international service, including the Niwano 

Peace Prize, the UNESCO Felix Houphouet-Boigny 

Peace Prize, and the International Montessori 

Prize‘‘Education and Peace’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) commends the Community of Sant’Egidio 

3 for their extensive charity and generosity on behalf 

4 of the poor throughout the world; 


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1 (2) honors the Community of Sant’Egidio for 

2 promoting, negotiating, and brokering peace 

3 throughout the world, but especially in Africa; 

4 (3) pays tribute to the Community of 

5 Sant’Egidio for providing aid to refugees of war and 

6 natural disasters around the world; 

7 (4) applauds the Community of Sant’Egidio for 

8 promoting respect and mutual understanding among 

9 the different religions of the world; and 

10 (5) thanks the Community of Sant’Egidio for 

11 providing the international forum of the 2006 Pray12 er for Peace, thereby assisting in the resolution of 

13 conflicts in a peaceful manner. 

Æ 


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