Italy: New interreligious meeting at Assisi to take place on September 4 and 5
On September 4 and 5, the Sant’Egidio Community is organizing a world interreligious Meeting in Assisi, which will have as its theme: Towards Worldwide Peace – Religions and Cultures in Dialogue. It will take place 20 years after the World Day of Prayer for Peace, to which John Paul II invited representatives of the principle religions of the world in 1986.
In a press release issued on July 13, Sant’Egidio stated its wish to go back to its starting point, having organized every year since 1986, international conferences Mankind and Religions in the “principal towns of Italy and the capitals of Europe.”
During these two days, the minor basilica of Assisi will welcome religious representatives from all over the world. Including Chief Rabbi Cohen of Haifa, rabbis Toaff and De Segni of Rome, Ibrahim Ezzedine, adviser to the Presidency of the United Arab Emirates, the Secretary of the World Lutheran Federation and cardinals Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture and Interreligious Dialogue, and Stanislas Dziwisz, archbishop of Cracow and former Private Secretary to John Paul II.
Benedict XVI will not take part in this meeting, in accordance with the reservations which the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has expressed in the past.
