[link to wikileaks.org] 8/30/2011
[The Community of] Sant'Egidio, on the other hand, is said to be sympathetic to the former mayor of Rome and current leader of the Italian left, Walter Veltroni



[link to ncronline.org] 6/1/2012
Nuzzi's book [His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI] also includes an encrypted 2011 cable from the papal embassy in Washington back to the Secretariat of State, relaying a request from Cardinal Francis George of Chicago that the Community of Sant'Egidio, a Rome-based movement active on peace and justice issues, be asked to withdraw an award it planned to bestow on Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois for suppressing the death penalty.

According to the cable, George objected to Quinn's positions on abortion and gay marriage, including policies about serving same-sex couples, which effectively put Catholic adoption agencies in Illinois out of business.

The cable was signed by Monsignor Jean-Francois Lantheaume, the embassy's charge d'affairs. The full text is:

From: Washington
To: Decryption Off., Decr. N. 300
Date of encryption: 03/11/2011
Date of decryption: 03/11/11
His Eminence Cardinal George, Francis, Archbishop of Chicago, has informed this pontifical embassy that the Community of Sant'Egidio has plans to present an award to the Governor of Illinois, Mr. Quinn, for suppressing the death penalty in that state. Attested that Mr. Quinn is of the Catholic faith, the bishops and Cardinal George retain that this recognition is inopportune for the following reasons:

•He promoted the law on homosexual marriage;
•He is in favor of abortion;
•He withdrew from the Catholic church the right to contract with federal agencies for the adoption of minors.

Cardinal George courteously requests an intervention with the authorities of the Community of Sant'Egidio so that the decision will be reconsidered. On the part of this embassy, a nulla osta [no objection] to what is proposed by His Eminence the Archbishop of Chicago. Lantheaume, charge d'affaires.

[link to ncronline.org] 2/6/2012
Support for Sant’Egidio

Americans tend to have a distorted view of the “new movements” in the Catholic church, seeing them as largely right-wing. That may be due in part to early critical books such as Gordon Urquhart’s 1999 The Pope’s Armada, but mostly it’s because the only outfits that have much of a profile in the States, such as Opus Dei and the Legionaries of Christ, do skew to the conservative end of the spectrum.

(Technically, Opus Dei is a personal prelature and the Legion is a religious order, so neither is a “movement.” Both, however, are 20th century creations, and thus part of the broad landscape of new ecclesial realities.)

Yet in Europe, and certainly in Italy, Catholics don’t have the same tendency to associate the movements with a particular ideology, because the galaxy of well-known movements is considerably more diverse. The Community of Sant’Egidio, arguably the movement with the single highest public profile in Italy, illustrates the point.

Launched in 1968 by a layman named Andrea Riccardi, who is now the Minister for International Cooperation in the government of Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, Sant’Egidio was designed for progressive youth inspired by the revolutionary fervor of ’68 who nevertheless wanted to stay Catholic. Today, it claims 60,000 members in 73 countries.



[link to www.santegidio.org]
The White House
Washington
January 20, 2012

Mr. Marco Impagliazzo
President
Community of Sant'Egidio
Washington, D.C.

Dear Marco:

Please accept my congratulations on opening your office here in Washington, D.C.

By fighting poverty, empowering civil society, and preaching understanding, organizations like the Community of Sant'Egidio remind us of our power to create a better world for ourselves and our children when we do God's work here on earth. These efforts transcend borders, lift up communities, and extend the hand of friendship to those in need.

As you continue striving for peace and global solidarity, I wish you all the best.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama