Perugia. Notes of Peace and Culture: Rector Marianelli’s Speech at the Christmas Concert

On the occasion of the traditional Christmas Concert of the University of Perugia, the Magnificent Rector, Professor Massimiliano Marianelli, wished to address a special message to the academic community and the city, reflecting on the value of music, culture, and sharing during this festive season. We publish his speech in full, celebrating the harmony, educational commitment, and community spirit that characterize the University of Perugia.

Dear Colleagues,
Dear Students,
Friends of our University,

Every year, Christmas brings back to us the wonder of a birth: a small sign that illuminates what is fragile and transforms it into possibility. In this discreet light, we can rediscover the truth of our condition: we are beings of relationships, supported by mutual care, called to build a sense of community together.

“There is nothing more whole than a broken heart,” taught a Hasidic master. In the fractures of history, in the contradictions of our time, unexpected spaces of meaning open up: it is there that humanity reveals itself in its fertile fragility, in its capacity to endure and regenerate.

We are called to view peace as a concrete, daily commitment, made of simple gestures, proximity, and listening; a peace that is never abstract, but rooted in responsibility toward others.

Simone Weil, speaking of love for the world, wrote:

“We love this country down here, we love this land. This land is real: unfortunately, it offers many resistances to love.”

And yet, precisely because it is real, this land, which carries the testimony of Francis of Assisi and Aldo Capitini, calls for our commitment: to leave a mark, even a small one, but an authentic one. A mark made of presence, seriousness, attention, of that daily “yes” that shapes relationships and institutions.

As a University, our “country down here,” we commit every day to making this “yes” possible: in research that opens new paths; in education that welcomes and guides; in the care of shared spaces and time; in responsibility toward our community and society.

For this reason, my wish for all of us is simple and yet demanding:

• that we may be able to preserve and create bonds;

• that we know how to build peace in the places we live;

• that each of us finds the strength to say that “yes” which opens, not closes; which unites, not divides.

I wish for all of us the patience of the sower, who entrusts the seed to the earth and the bloom to time. May this Christmas restore our trust in the value of relationships and in the space of the “between,” where encounters are never taken for granted but always a gift; and may we be accompanied by the calm — even faint — light that arises from every authentic relationship.

May this Christmas bring the quiet certainty that every act of care is not lost and that even every obstacle, every wound, intertwines with the invisible fabric of a community, helping to build its future, harmonious and peaceful.

To all of you, from the heart,
Merry Christmas
and a New Year of peace, care, and shared hope.

Massimiliano Marianelli
Rector
University of Perugia