The Community of Sant'Egidio: Serving the Periphery With Compassion

By: Edoardo Giribaldi

Over fifty years ago, a group of high school students in Rome founded the Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay Catholic association driven by the desire to concretely live out the Gospel by focusing on the periphery and peripheral people.

Today, according to its website, the movement is present in more than 70 countries with 70,000 members worldwide, never losing its focus on the Poor, one of the three pillars upon which Sant’Egidio was established, alongside Prayer and Peace.

“Don’t worry, we are going to make it,” said Paola Piscitelli, President of the Community of Sant’Egidio USA, as volunteers raced against time to pack over 500 meals weekly served at seven different sites around Manhattan.

Preparation usually starts early in the day and continues until 5:30 p.m. when President Piscitelli loads the food into her car and heads to Penn Station, the initial distribution site. Other volunteers join her after walking from St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, whose kitchens are provided to the Community every Tuesday to ensure each person in need receives their portion of food.

Despite her extensive involvement, it's the small acts of hope and friendship within challenging contexts that motivate Piscitelli and the volunteers to dedicate their time to the less fortunate.

“Last week, a man came to the distribution; as I gave him his meal, I addressed him by name. He was so surprised that he kept repeating, ‘She knows my name! She knows my name!’ to those in line behind him. It was a wonderful experience,” recounted Piscitelli.

On Thanksgiving Day, the Community hosted the traditional dinner at the Church of the Epiphany in the Gramercy Park neighborhood, bringing together over 125 people. Recently, in the presence of the Community’s President Marco Impagliazzo, the House of Solidarity was inaugurated in Harlem. The place welcomes children and people living on the streets, hosting cultural workshops for immigrants and non-English speakers, backing up their integration into new communities.

“We hope to keep reaching the peripheries even more,” Piscitelli concluded, emphasizing the enduring relevance of the motivation that inspired a group of students decades ago in today's context, where more and more people struggle to find dignity in their lives.