sda-2016

Will be 511 the total delegate confirmed. 29 will be the panels that will host 200 speakers

In Assisi, everything is ready for the World Prayer for Peace. Maestro Uto Ughi with the Chamber Orchestra -"The Philharmonic of Rome" - will be opening the events on September 17th at 5.30pm. The Assisi meeting will be attended by 511 religious leaders from around the world. This historic 30th anniversary will be officialy opened on September 18th with a ceremony presided over by the Italian President Sergio Mattarella. Pope Francis will close the events on Tuesday, September 20th, with a solemn ceremony in Saint Francis square in front of 12.000 people.

"We are preparing to live these four days in full synergy with our partners of community of Sant'Egidio, Diocese of Assisi, the Italian and Vatican Security Forces, many volunteers and all people of good will that worked for the success of this hystoric event".

511 THE TOTAL NUMBER OF DELEGATES

Will be 511 the total delegate confirmed. 29 will be the panels that will host 200 speakers. Meetings scheduled will touch the most important topics of the moment: migration, peace and terrorism, economy and ingiusticies, extremism and dialogue, human rights, climate change and food security.

RELIGIOUS AND ISTITUTIONAL LEADERS

Will attend the meeting 30 delegations from different Countries included the Italian President Sergio Matarella, the President of Central African Republic Faustin-Archange Touadeéra and Bakeka Mbete, President of the National Assembly of South Africa. Among the main World religious leaders we remember: the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, The Israel Chief Rabbi Avraham Steinberg, the Ptriarch of Tendai Buddhism Koei Morikawa. 27 Will be the Cardinals and beeshops confirmed.  Among them also the archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun. 6 will be the Nobel Peace Prizes, among them Mairead Maguire, Jody Williams, Tawakkul Karman.

MAXIMUM LEVEL OF SECURITY

250 are the security forces engaged for the protection of the guests. The Italian and Vatican secret services will ensure the safety of the city's places of Assisi which will host the events.

 "Assisi will launch once again a pofound message against all wars supporting the path of peace undertaken 30 years ago by Pope John Paul II”, Father Enzo Said. A great international event which will be attended by Ministers General of families Franciscan. We know we have to face now aware of its importance for the history and aware of its positive consequences for all people of good will ".

BACKGROUND

The inter-religious International Meetings started in the mid-80’s, as an initiative of the Community of Sant’Egidio, with the aim of promoting mutual understanding and dialogue among religions, in a horizon of peace.

The Community of Sant’Egidio has continued living the spirit of the Assisi World Day of Prayer, proposed by John Paul II in 1986, by accepting the Pope’s final invitation of that historical meeting: “Let’s keep spreading the message of Peace and living the spirit of Assisi”. Since that moment, through a network of friendship between representatives of different faiths and cultures from more than 60 countries, the Community has promoted a pilgrimage of peace, that has had several stages in various European and Mediterranean cities year after year.

The two first meetings in Rome in 1987 and 1988, were followed by Warsaw in September 1989 (“War never again”) - on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of WWII -, Bari in 1990, Malta in 1991, Brussels in 1992 (“Europe, Religions, Peace”, about the unity of Europe and its relation with the South of the world).

In 1993 the pilgrimage stopped in Milan and in the following years, in Assisi and Florence.

The 1995 meeting was a special one: it took place in Jerusalem, in the heart of the Holy City. The title was “Together in Jerusalem: Jews, Christians and Muslims”. After the Rome and Padua-Venice meetings, came the extraordinary meeting in Bucharest in 1988, “Peace is the name of God: God, Mankind, Peoples”. For the first time, the meeting was organized by the Community and the Orthodox Church of Romania.

The presence of several Orthodox patriarchs and cardinals, and mainly the new atmosphere of dialogue opened the way for the first visit of the Pope to an Orthodox country, which took place some months later.

John Paul II, in the message he sent to the XIV Meeting for Peace, organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio in Lisbon, said: “I would like to thank especially the Community of Sant’Egidio for the enthusiasm and the spiritual courage shown in accepting the message of Assisi and bringing it to so many places in the world through the meeting of men of different religions.”

Pope John Paul II wrote in “Novo Millenio ineunte”: “... we face the challenge of inter-religious dialogue, to which we will be committed in the new century (...) Dialogue must go on”.

In 2007 in Naples pope Benedict XVI confirmed: "While respecting the differences of the various religions, we are all called to work for peace and to be effectively committed to furthering reconciliation among peoples. This is the true "spirit of Assisi" which opposes every form of violence and the abuse of religion as a pretext for violence (...) The Catholic Church intends to continue on the path of dialogue in order to encourage understanding between the different cultures, traditions and forms of religious wisdom."