Diocese of Milan calls for host families

(ANSA) - Milan, July 15 - The Diocese of Milan has launched an appeal to families in Milan asking them to host young farmers that will arrive in the capital of Lombardy from around the world in the first week of October, on the occasion of "Terra Madre Giovani" (Mother Earth Youth), to take place from October 3-6.
    "The willingness to welcome and to host are signs of our strong desire to listen, to have mutual exchange, to learn how to build the future of the planet that Expo Milan 2015 places before our eyes as the focus of our responsibility and our decisions," said Monsignor Luca Bressan, episcopal vicar for culture and social action.
    A sofa-bed for young farmers in exchange for local products from distant lands: this is the message from the Diocese and Slow Food to the city, one to which some well-known figures from the entertainment world, such as Roberto Vecchioni and Adriano Celentano, have already signed on.
    The Diocese's message of welcoming joins with the one already launched in recent months by the founder of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini, who has repeatedly asked the Milanese to open their homes to farmers under age 40 from all over the world. At the same time that "Terra Madre Giovani" will take place, Caritas at Expo will hold a conclusive conference on October 4 "around a path that in recent months has seen many families in the Milan area engaged in reflection and in an act of conversion of their own life styles, towards forms that are more in solidarity (with the environment) and environmentally friendly," Bressan said.