A substantial number of children coming from Gozitan primary and secondary schools, gathered at Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary to celebrate together with a difference. This year they did not only participate during the yearly Community Chest Fund activity, but had also the opportunity to embrace the ‘light of peace’ coming from Betlehem.

The candle in a lantern leaves Betlehem every year and visits several countries around the world. This tradition has been held for the past 22 years after was initatied on the initiative of the ORF Austrian Television, as a prospect in aid of children with disabilities.

This lantern carrying ‘the light of peace’ was brought over to Gozo on Friday morning, throught the coordination of the Ministry for Gozo and the Gozo Curia. It arrived on a helicopter of the Italian Military Mission in Malta, two days after it arrived in Malta on a flight from Vienna in Austria.

The Minister for Gozo, Giovanna Debono, together with Gozitan mayors and parish priests attended this activity which started with the arrival of the ‘light of peace’ at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu. Six Gozitan children delivered a short message in six different languages: Maltese, English, Italian, French, German and Spanish. This underlined the impotance of intercultural dialogue which has been promoted throughout this year.

Bishop Emeritus Nikol Cauchi celebrated holy mass, during which children from several schools in Gozo presented their Malta Community Chest Fund donations to Mrs Mary Fenech Adami, whilst others lit their candles from the ‘light of peace’. These were later placed near the crib at their schools.

Every year, this light is transported from Betlehem to several homes of European families, delivering a message of peace. An Austrian child goes the Grotto of the Nativity in Bethlehem to light a candle, transport it to Telaviv Airport in Israel and then to Austria. During the flight, the light is stored in a special container, where the flame is nursed with oxygen. Amongst others prominent places the flame is also taken to the European Parliament in Strasbourg and other European Union institutions in Brussels.

Shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Light of Peace became a symbol for Europe’s reunification. At Christmas in 1989 around 10,000 people in the centre of the Czech town of Budweis welcomed the light as a symbol of peace, whereas the first lantern of peace was lit in Betlehem during the same year.

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