Roma cura Roma, The project

Via Aurelia Pilgrims participating in
‘ROMA CURA ROMA – TUTTA MIA LA CITTA’

The Municipality of Rome organised a clean-up of Rome on 9 April 2022. Among the 457 groups and initiatives registered throughout the city of Rome, we, the “Via Aurelia Pilgrims”, were officially involved: https://romacura.roma.it/partecipanti/via-aurelia-pilgrims/

At 9:30 a.m., while we were still gathering all the members of our communities, a police car from the municipality stopped next to us and asked us if we were ready to start the work.

We were 24 volunteers from three communities, Marist Sisters, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and Missionaries of Africa. Coming from 5 continents, South America, North America, Africa, Asia and Europe, some are students and others work in different functions in Rome.

An old lady stopped with her dog and helped us to clean the path. Other pedestrians were surprised to see us cutting the grass, scraping the ground, sweeping the road, they passed by in silence; others were grateful and encouraged us to continue. “That’s great! Finally, something is done”, I heard a woman saying to me in Italian.

For two hours, we cleaned the path to the metro station and also the stairs nearby. At the end, we counted about 15 bags filled with either plastic, paper, glass bottles or cut plants and herbs. Everything that was compostable, we took to the compost in the garden.

At the end of the work, we were very happy to be able to contribute to the beautification of the city of Rome and to make our small contribution to the care for our common home, as the encyclical letter Laudato Si invites us.

Via Aurelia Pilgrims