"Your Holiness, on the occasion of your name day may you receive the most fervent and sincere good wishes of the Italian people and my own personal ones, together with affectionate wishes of health and well-being for your person”. Thus opens a message from the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, sent to Pope Francis. "As you recently declared, 'no one should threaten the existence of others' - recalls the Head of State - Even this fundamental rule - this 'minimum level' of human coexistence - is called into question in the dramatic context of an international and, in particular, Middle Eastern conjuncture marked by violence, contrasts, and impulses of revenge. Your appeals to safeguard the inescapable bonds of brotherhood therefore sound timely and pressing, they never cease to question the consciences of millions of women and men on every continent and constitute for believers and non-believers alike fruitful seeds of justice and peace". "On the feast of St. George, I renew to you, Holy Father, the expressions of the closeness of the Italian people and my highest consideration for your high apostolic mission," Mattarella concluded.
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