Berkley Center

For four decades now, the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic lay movement dedicated to befriending the poor, building peace, and fostering interfaith dialogue, has convened an annual meeting of religious leaders, civil society representatives, government officials, and people of goodwill. This year’s International Meeting for Peace, titled “Unarmed and Disarming Peace,” returned to the place where it all started: Assisi, Italy, the home of Saints Francis and Clare. In 1986, the first of these meetings, then known as the World Day of Prayer, was held here at the request of Pope John Paul II. At that time, the idea of Catholic leaders praying alongside other faiths was considered highly controversial within the Church, and talk of peace was fraught in the Cold War context. While attitudes towards interfaith dialogue and the geopolitical landscape have changed considerably since then, the urgency of talking about peace – and the prophetic role that communities of faith can play in doing so – remains as relevant as ever.

I have attended the past five International Meetings for Peace, and my colleague Katherine Marshall has been to over twenty. (Read her overview and reflections on the Assisi gathering here.) Sant’Egidio has built a compelling structure for these meetings, which combine forums on a wide range of academic, development, and religious topics with moments of collective prayer and a public exhortation for peace. This year, several themes emerged that demonstrate why this particular gathering is so impressive and important for our challenging times.

Firstly, this meeting is the fruit of decades of dialogue, and it has centuries-old spiritual roots. The figure of Saint Francis loomed large, a patron saint of sorts for the gathering. Speakers from across religious traditions alluded to the medieval saint’s life: his conversion to a life of poverty, his deep bond with the natural world, and his commitment to dialogue with the religious other. In 1219, during the Fifth Crusade, Francis traveled to Egypt to meet with Sultan Malik al-Kamil – an early example of interfaith dialogue at a time when religion was used to justify violent conflict, as it still too often is. (Among the meeting’s 24 forums, one examined Saint Francis’s work for peace.) Moreover, the memory of the inaugural meeting in 1986 gave this year’s gathering a sense of historical weight. The “Spirit of Assisi” – a spirit of dialogue, friendship, and solidarity inspired by Francis’s life and ignited at the 1986 meeting – was referenced throughout the meeting and was the focus of two forums. In short, attendees were in good company: they were building on foundations laid forty years ago, inspired by a saint who died 800 years ago.

Secondly, friendship is essential to the Sant’Egidio approach. While collaboration, partnership, and relationship-building are common buzzwords in diplomatic and development circles, Sant’Egidio emphasizes the importance of true friendship between individuals of different faiths, generations, and perspectives. This friendship was on display in warm hospitality of Sant’Egidio’s members. Shoten Minegishi, a Soto Zen Buddhist monk who had attended the 1986 meeting, reflected on the power of friendship to overcome skepticism about interfaith dialogue and suspicion of other faiths. “I faced criticism and inner conflict over continuing to attend a gathering organized by a Christian community,” he said at a forum about the history of the Assisi meeting. “Why, then, did I keep traveling all the way from Japan? Looking back, the answer was surprisingly simple: I liked the people of the Community of Sant’Egidio.” Their appeal lies, among other things, in in the freely given nature of the friendship they practice: nearly all of Sant’Egidio’s more than 60,000 members are volunteers, including many helping to run the event. This approach demonstrates a deep-seated commitment to peace, not only at policymaking tables but between individuals.

Thirdly, the meeting emphasized that genuine peace cannot be achieved through the power of weapons. Just as true friendship is disarming, genuine peace is unarmed. At a time when governments are spending more and more on defense, the meeting proposed an alternative notion of power. “The weapons of believers,” said Andrea Riccardi, founder of Sant’Egidio, “are hands raised in prayer and extended in dialogue... Dialogue can disarm language when it becomes belligerent and threatening. Prayer can obtain that peace which human beings are unable to bring about on their own. This is why those who believe are not helpless, but strong with a different kind of strength.” This paradoxical idea of strength in weakness, grounded in Christian scripture, can transform the world by converting the hearts of ordinary men and women. In concrete terms, this means creating a culture in which people put pressure on decisionmakers to respect and strengthen international law regarding human rights, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and humanitarian protection in conflicts.

A common talking point at interfaith meetings is that religious figures should use their moral authority to hold the world’s leaders to account. At the Assisi gathering, it was more than a platitude, not least because of Sant’Egidio’s track record in peacebuilding, from brokering the end of the civil war in Mozambique to more recent efforts in countries such as South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Perhaps the most telling element of the Sant’Egidio approach is how these meetings end: not only with words, but with action. The closing ceremony, held front of the Basilica of Saint Francis, brought together representatives of the world’s major faiths along with thousands of other attendees. After the reading of the Appeal for Peace, attendees present shared the sign of peace: everyone stood and turned to those around them to offer a bow, a handshake, an embrace. Simple as these gestures were, they took on a new meaning when surrounded by thousands of others doing the same. It was there, near the tomb of Saint Francis, in 2026 as in 1986, that they offered a taste of a world at peace.

For an overview of this year’s Meeting for Peace, including recordings of forums and text versions of speeches, visit the meeting’s website.