The interreligious meeting of prayer for peace,
organised by the Community of St. Egidio, returns to Rome for the first
time in 17 years.
The meeting titled ‘The Courage to Hope’ will be the
first since Francis was elected Pope and will be held near the time of
the Pope’s visit to the Italian city of Assisi, the cradle of interfaith
dialogue.
The Community’s president, Marco Impagliazzo
presented the event schedule today and said the Syrian crisis would
naturally be the dominant theme of the meeting: “We were really struck
by Pope Francis’ words: “Don’t let your hope be stolen away”.
It was not
only addressed to young people but to all generations and, in today’s
world, possibly to all peoples. Hope is lacking in so many parts of the
world and we are getting used to the rites of war and conflicts.”
“This resignation to the inevitability of violence
was particularly evident during the Syrian crisis. “what is lacking is
hope in the vision of a new world which can be found in Pope Francis’
words. Hope requires courage in today’s day and age,” Impagliazzo said.
The Community’s founder, Andrea Riccardi, stressed
the urgent need for international action to stop the war in Syria and
reopen negotiations in a public appeal to world leaders ahead of the G20
summit in St. Petersburg.
He asked participants to come up with an
initiative to give space to dialogue again, because this is “the only
possible solution that can prevent us from being crushed by another
crisis.”
Impagliazzo said the first signs of hope and
courage came from Russian foreign affairs minister, Lavrov, who proposed
Assad turn over his chemical weapons. If the proposal is accepted, it
could prevent international military intervention.
The meeting organised by the Community of
Sant’Egidio, will be held in Rome between 29 September and 1 October.
There will be 400 representatives of all the main religious traditions and European and world political and cultural representatives from 60 countries.
One of the meetings – all of which will be held in
Rome’s Trastevere neighbourhood where the Community is based – will be
on “religious terrorism” and presided by the President of the pontifical
Council for Religious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran. The
inspiration for this came from the Pope himself. He asked the
Community’s heads to look into the issue.
Participants include dozens of cardinals, bishops, representatives of
all Churches and representatives of the Jewish and Muslim faiths as
well as other world faiths.
Politicians such as Italian Prime Minister
Enrico Letta, Cecile Kyenge, Mario Mauro, Graziano Delrio and Flavio
Zanonato, Pakistani politician Paul Bhatti, the mayor of Rome, Ignazio
Marino and others will also be attending.
Aside from the Syrian and
Middle Eastern crisis, other subjects that will be dealt with during the
meeting, include 50th anniversary of “Pacem in Terris”, Pope Francis’
Latin America, Islam and the culture of co-existence, religions and
violence against women, welcoming and integrating immigrants, sick
cities and existential suburbs, information at the service of peace, lay
people and believers in dialogue, eco-sustainability of the future,
longevity as a blessing and martyrdom today.
The primary focus will be
on the persecution of Christians. Pope Francis will receive the
meeting’s participants in an audience on Monday 30 September at 12:00.