For the first time on January 16, 2025, starting from 08.00 am to 18.00 pm, voting will be held to choose between 5 candidates the Right of the year. This is a process that involves the civic engagement of anyone who on that date can secretly choose the candidate they want, whose name will be placed in the Garden of the Righteous for 2025.
The process is simple and requires only a few minutes of commitment from anyone who will be at the "Our Lady of Good Counsel" Catholic University Campus and Hospital Complex or at the "At Luigji Monti" Polyambulance on Kavaja Street that day.
Members of the "White Rose"
The members of the "White Rose" were young Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox students in their twenties. They were joined by the university professor Kurt Huber. In the picture you see Hans Scholl, his sister Sophie and Christoph Probst. Alexander Schmorell and Willi Graf were also part of the group. Together they organized a clandestine system through which they tried to sabotage Hitler's regime. They devoted themselves to the printing and distribution of leaflets through which they urged their compatriots to rebel and resist National Socialism in the name of freedom and brotherhood among peoples. After the publication of the first leaflet in June 1942, there were five more, until February 18, 1943. The Scholl brothers were discovered and arrested at the University of Munich. The other members were then arrested by the Gestapo, tried, and sentenced to beheading. Before the execution Sophie said: "Such a beautiful sunny day and I have to go... It doesn't matter if we die if our actions have served to shake and awaken the conscience."
Adriano Olivetti
He was born in 1901 in a Jewish family. After graduating in industrial chemistry, he worked in his father's company. Olivetti chose to work like everyone else in the family business, to understand their difficulties and needs. The company, which produced typewriters and mechanical products, became recognized in the international market, and even took several steps towards electronic technology, introducing in 1959 the first electronic calculator on the market, considered the 'grandfather' of the computer. After becoming president of the company, Adriano multiplied services and initiatives for employees and their families, including healthcare, insurance, nurseries and summer camps for children, residential complexes, libraries, and recreational centers for families. The atmosphere of cooperation and mutual respect between managers and workers that prevailed in his factories was an important element of the company's success. Adriano Olivetti was not only an entrepreneur, but he was also an urban planner, writer, publisher, and above all a social reformer who focused on creating community. Olivetti, who later converted to the Catholic faith, reminded himself and sometimes his workers to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things will be added to them. He died in 1960.
Cicely Saunders
Cicely (1918-2005) comes from a wealthy, but not upper-class, family, who left her studies in economics to become a nurse. She created the first modern hospice in 1967 and invented palliative care, thus revolutionizing the history of medicine and healthcare. A hospice is a place where the terminally ill patient lives with dignity, despite difficulties. Even when the disease is incurable, treatment continues, suffering can be alleviated, and the same attention is paid to the patient's mental state as to the body. You don't recover in a hospice, but you're never alone. In 1981 she received the Templeton Prize and still today the World Health Organization recognizes her efforts as fundamental standards of healthcare. Her spiritual life led her to convert from atheist to Christian in the Evangelical Church. She said: "The doctor and staff must risk everything, sharing humanity with patients, searching for the meaning of life, and walking together towards hope and beyond hope."
Antonio Megalizzi
He was born in 1989 and graduated in Communication Sciences. The boy attended the Master's program in European and International Studies at the University of Trento, while in 2015 he attended the summer school in Brussels, which opened a new dimension of personal development. Antonio recognized the communication gap between European institutions and citizens, so he created journalistic programs to explain and bring the European Union closer to the people. While growing professionally as a radio announcer and journalist, he became part of the Italian editorial team of the European university radio format 'Europhonica', to develop a conscious European civilization. In four years, he created over 100 radio programs in the EU and trained dozens of young people, including Members of the European Parliament. Antonio was killed at the age of 29 in the terrorist attack of December 11, 2018 in Strasbourg, at the heart of the European Union. The 'Antonio Megalizzi' Foundation was created in his name, with the aim of promoting, coordinating, organizing and supporting initiatives and events that advance Antonio's European dream. His friends say that Antonio had a sea of dreams and the determination to make them all come true. Antonio was empathy, the ability to understand the suffering of others. He was a source of inspiration because he insisted on completing his work with humility and without wavering. He radiated, as his friends recall, the strength to always demand the most from himself.
Ibrahim Rugova
Kosovo politician (1944-2006). He was elected chairman of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Party in 1989. His efforts were dedicated to achieving Kosovo's independence peacefully, creating a kind of "shadow government" for the province that, before the 1990s, was part of the Yugoslav Federation. The administration of Kosovo during this period ensured the establishment of schools and hospitals, which relied on the contribution of Albanians living outside the territory. Rugova supported the peaceful path also to stop blood feuds, a social custom deeply rooted in this society. After the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo in 1992 through a referendum, Rugova became its first president. During the 1998-1999 war for the liberation of Kosovo, he was an important political and international reference point, even for Western governments. In 2001, Rugova became the first president of independent Kosovo. Patient resistance and peaceful dedication to the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic inspired his political activity throughout the difficult Kosovo crisis of the late 1990s and mid-2000s. For these reasons, he was called the "Kosovo Gandhi." He passed away in January 2006.
