From July 24 to 27, 2025, the international Catholic festival Letino 2025, with the title “L’Impossibile, il nostro Necessario” (“The Impossible, Our Necessary”), took place in Letino, Italy, a picturesque town in the heart of the Matese National Park.
The event was attended by 600 young volunteers, clergy, parents, children, scientists, and artists from 25 countries around the world, who gathered in Letino to engage in dialogue about faith, culture, science, and art. Among the invited speakers was Eduard Fiedler from the Triertium research group basad at the Department of Philosophy and Patrology at the Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology, Palacký University in Olomouc. Dr. Fiedler gave a lecture on “The Mystery of Childhood: Ferdinand Ulrich’s Philosophical Anthropology.”
“The festival has an unforgettable atmosphere. In the morning, there is a Holy Mass, followed by a conference in the morning, workshops in the afternoon, and several musical performances in the evening. Everything comes together: deep theory and attentive practice, spiritual life and family time, art and science, theology and philosophy. Such a synthesis is possible thanks to a community rooted in sharing what usually divides and isolates: suffering. The core of the spirituality of the Catholic foundation Stabat, which organizes the festival, is Mary’s position beneath Christ’s cross. Presence with those who suffer, which makes the relationship visible even where we expect a lack of relationship, loneliness, and abandonment. It was precisely the dramatic nature of the relational being of man as a child that I spoke about at the festival.”
The Catholic foundation Stabat (https://www.fondazionestabat.org/) was founded in 2017 and is based in Milan. It focuses exclusively on social solidarity in the field of social work and charity and connects and supports associations from around the world, including the Consolatio volunteer network (https://con-solatio.org/). The Letino International Festival (https://www.letinofestival.com/) takes place every July and has featured personalities such as leading American Catholic philosopher David C. Schindler, Austrian quantum physicist Georg Reider, Italian astrophysicist Giovanni Covone, and many others.
