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At the Official Area of St. Peter’s Basilica in Via della Conciliazione 3A Father Francesco Occhetta, Secretary General of the Fratelli tutti Foundation, and Luca Pancalli, president of the Italian Paralympic Committee and candidate for the presidency of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), dialogued yesterday on “Vocabulary of Fraternity, 365 words to rediscover our humanity,” the Rizzoli book of the Foundation that is chaired by H.E. Card. Mauro Gambetti.

Pancalli recounted the long evolution of terms to refer to Paralympic athletes that has accompanied the attention and respect for people with disabilities: “From invalids to amputees to handicapped to disabled and today just Paralympic athletes. It has been a cultural growth based also on words.” For the ICP president, “sport is a generator of community, as Pope Francis said. Of true relationships. It brings people closer together and becomes more and more an instrument of pedagogy and active politics.” In the volume, Pancalli is the author of the word Sport.
Father Occhetta recalled that “fraternity is reborn next to someone else. It is not instinctive, it is not cultural. It must be chosen to change the paradigm of the world.” A different vocabulary therefore is necessary. “We long for fraternity that will be able to be reborn also through words,” Occhetta added. ”There is too much hatred, let us raise the cry of conscience and prepare an alternative with good, human words.

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