The mayor of Cagliari, Massimo Zedda, took part in the audience with Pope Francis this morning. The meeting with the Holy Father took place together with the archbishop and secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Giuseppe Baturi, and the director of the diocesan Caritas, Don Marco Lai .
The reason is linked to the project "Guardians of Beauty" which involves, among others, the cities of Cagliari, Matera, Bari, Bitonto, and Caltanissetta. It is a social promotion action that in Southern Italy is called "Guardians of the beautiful South" , coordinated by the Consorzio Communitas and financed by the Fondazione con il Sud and by Caritas Italiana. The aim is to open a "widespread and decentralized" construction site throughout Italy to protect the "Beauty" of the territory and social cohesion.
In the capital, in collaboration with the Church of Cagliari through the diocesan Caritas, the activation of the project “Custodi del bello Cagliari” is expected soon, in implementation of the local partnership established by Caritas San Saturnino Fondazione Onlus . The launch includes two pilot teams composed of citizens in fragile situations, engaged in promoting environmental care and urban decorum with the protection, cleaning and maintenance of identified public places and assets. This project also aims to offer, through training and work, an opportunity for social integration to people in disadvantaged conditions.
"On the occasion of the meeting, it was my honor, as Mayor, to extend to Pope Francis the warmest greetings of our city," Zedda's message. "And to thank him for his tireless daily commitment to peace, the weakest people and a more just society. Sincere thanks to His Excellency Monsignor Baturi and to Don Marco Lai for the opportunity to visit the Holy Father, with whom we remembered his first official outing in Cagliari in 2013. On the occasion of the meeting, we donated to the Pope a volume from 1700 written by the Jesuit Father Andrés Febrés containing a poem on Sant'Efisio and the story of the procession of the Saint on the occasion of the first of May ."
