“Carry on! Carry on with courage along the road of dialogue and brotherhood, because we are all children of God!” Pope Francis forcefully told the hundred people from the Focolare and several Italian Muslim communities at the end of the December 13th Angelus. They had come together to testify to their common journey that has been underway for many years, “Christians and Muslims Together in Building Peace,” as the banner they held read on Saint Peter’s Square. There were imams with their communities from Rome, Trieste, Teramo, and Catania, young women and teenagers from the Mosque of Centocelle in Rome, families and children, scholars and journalists. There was also a delegation from the Buddhist, Risho Kosei Kai Movement, and representatives from Religions for Peace and from other religions. From the festive atmosphere on Saint Peter’s Square, the group of 400 people moved to the seat of the Augustinianum which is just a few hundred metres from the colonnade surrounding Saint Peter’s Square. The lunch they shared provided a setting for some jovial interaction that everyone was looking forward to; there was a prayer room for Muslims; Mass for Catholics – such an unusual event that it was widely covered in the press.

Legal expert on religious freedom, Vincenzo Buonomo, professor of International Law at the Pontifical Lateran University, kicked off the afternoon with a geopolitical overview: “war is the only answer that Europe has been able to give to terrorist action,” he affirmed, “while other tools exist – negotiation, accords between countries in the region, dialogue – all of these are of course more demanding but without doubt also more efficacious in the mid and long term.” There was an equally incisive declaration by Imam of Catania, Abdelhafid Kheit, (directional member of the [Union of Islamic Communities of Italy] (UCOIL) who had just walked through the Holy Door of Mercy with several Christian friends: “Not everyone thinks that diversity is an enrichment, but it is the Lord God who made us different, otherwise we would be one community.” Italian Catholic Associations called for an investment in peace education, as a response to the clear challenge of dialogue. This is the direction in which the Spirit of Assisi is blowing, which was made present by Egidio Canil, Franciscan from the Sacred Convent, who exhorted everyone to: “cross through the armies again today – like Francis at the time of the Crusades, to encounter the Sultan – and bring peace.” Then there was the actual experience: Imams and Christian from Italian cities gave their live witnesses. The imam from Centocelle, Mohamed Ben Mohamed, relies heavily on the witness of young people – many of them present – to bring forward the war against evil;” Cenap Aydin, director of the Tevere Institute, joyfully exclaimed “Today even the Pope joined us!” This was followed by experiences from Centro La Pira in Florence which, since 1978, has been a place of fraternal welcome for people from other countries, and of encounter amongst different cultures. The community of Trieste was described by Imam Naher Akkad; the “Different but ONE” project, begun 20 years earlier and spread throughout Abruzzi, was presented by Imam Mustapha Batzami; and from the community of Catania where dialogue between Muslims and Christians has been lived out for some time in after-school programmes in Mosques; meetings amongst families that led to two large-scale public events, which were presented by an imam and Giusy Brogna who is in charge of the Focolare’s interreligious dialogue in Italy. The presence of Amjad Zedan, a young Syrian student from Sophia University Institute, and Pascal Bedros, a Lebanese resident of Aleppo, brought to the hall, amidst the coldness of the war, that thread of hope of those who believe that “despite it being almost too late, the situation could still change,” and warning to the West that has not understood how dangerous the stakes would be. The pact of closeness and collaboration that was signed by the Focolare Movement and by the Muslim Communities in Italy marked the conclusion of the event, and was a commitment to be lived out in everyday life, a responsibility “so that no one will give up in situations where life together is difficult, but that everyone would work for the “irrevocable rejection of violence” and in favour of religion that is a “source of social cohesion and of peace.”