"A special thought goes to you, Pope Francis. It was an honor to have met you, thank you for the hope and strength you gave us, a great man full of charisma. Rest in peace". These are a few simple and moving words that Ivano Sais entrusted to his social media to greet and remember the Holy Father. A particularly heartfelt farewell from the young man from Massargese, now 34, who carries indelibly imprinted in his memory that meeting in Cagliari on September 22, 2013 with the newly elected Pontiff who was then engaged in his first apostolic journey outside Rome.
The memories
Ivano Sais was in the Vatican square when the Pope announced his trip to Sardinia to pay homage, as he said, "to those Sardinian sailors who wanted to name the Argentine capital after the greatest patron saint of Sardinia, the Virgin of Bonaria." Those were the times of the crisis, of the suffering of the companies in the Portovesme area (nothing different from today). Thus was born the committee "The Children of the Crisis", a group of young students, precarious workers, unemployed, children of laid-off workers and those who were laid off, who already well before the Pope's visit stood out for their protests, sit-ins, and demands.
The meeting in Rome
Precisely because of this activism, a delegation of the committee was invited to the meeting in Cagliari and the spokesman Ivano Sais had the honor of going on stage together with his colleague Riccardo Murgia and exchanging a few words with the Holy Father. "A meeting - the 34-year-old comments - that we will remember forever and for which we will never stop thanking the late Don Alberto Pistolesi, then head of the Episcopal Youth of Cagliari, and the Police Headquarters. We were there to be spokesmen for the difficulties of young people and the poorest province in Italy and the Pope sent us a strong signal, that of hope. He encouraged us to continue on the path we had taken, as it was the right one, and his simple words instilled even more courage in us".
Simone Farris
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