In many Italian cities - Rome, Florence, Naples, Milan, Genoa, Novara, Terni, Messina, Padua, Turin, Bari, Parma, Lucca, Catania, Palermo - 2012 will begin with the pace of peace, remembering all the lands in North and South that are still afflicted by the violence of war, a source of suffering for many people and "mother" of all poverty.

For the tenth consecutive year, the Community of Sant'Egidio for January 1 promotes several initiatives for peace - events, moments of prayer and of assembly, marches and more - in every city and place where the community is present in 73 countries of the different continents. Sant'Egidio, under the title "Peace in all Lands", wants to support the tradition of the Catholic Church to celebrate January 1 World Day of Peace initiative involving all the men and women of good will.

The meeting in Rome is 1 January 2012 to 10.45 in
Largo Giovanni XXIII (beginning of Via della Conciliazione).
After some brief testimony, from there will move the Peace March that will reach St. Peter's Square to listen to the words of Pope Benedict XVI.

More than 60 movements and associations have joined, including: The National Presidency of Italian Catholic Action, the National Secretariat of M.A.S.C.I., National Presidency of UNITALSI, the Italian Catholic Charismatic Renewal, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the National AGESCI Committee; Association Emmaus, and the Ecclesial Movement of Cultural Engagement and the Community papa Giovanni XXIII, the National Confederation Coldiretti.

On the occasion of the 45th World Day of Peace, the Community of Sant'Egidio invited to join the message of Pope Benedict XVI "Educating young people to Justice and Peace", in the belief that restarting from the youth and from the responsibility towards the new generations is a great way to humanize contemporary societies, for the realization of the common good and the affirmation of peace in the world.

Pope Paul VI wrote in his message of January 1, 1968, during the Vietnam War: "The proposal to dedicate the first day of the new year to Peace is not intended as exclusively ours, that is, Catholic religion, it would have the adhesion of all true friends of peace, as if it were their own initiative, and express themselves in a free manner, particularly congenial to those who realize how beautiful and how important is the harmony of all voices in the world for the exaltation of this primary good, which is peace, in the varied concert of modern humanity. ".

It is in this spirit that this year - January 1, 2012 - 650 events will take place in the world, sponsored by the Sant'Egidio Community in collaboration with many other situations and groups, associations and movements, and non-believers: all real friends of peace. The insistence on repeating every year the initiative expresses the wish not to ever resign the impossibility of building peace with the decision not to accept in any case the war as "inevitable.