Taking the Catholic Pulse
  • John Allen Jr.
    • John Allen Jr.
    • Charles Collins
    • Elise Ann Allen
    • John Lavenburg
    • Fr. Jeff Kirby
    • Nirmala Carvalho
    • Charles Camosy
    • Eduardo Campos Lima
    • Paulina Guzik
    • Claire Page
    • Vatican
    • U.S.
    • UK and Ireland
    • Middle East
    • Americas
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Oceania
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • Podcast
    • Last Week in the Church
  • Support Us
  • About Us
    • Contact Details
    • Advertising
    • Email Updates

  

    

       

    

Crux
© 2023 Crux Catholic Media, Inc.
Privacy and Cookie Policy
CruxTaking the Catholic Pulse
  • About Crux
  • Contact Us
  • Advertising
  • Videos
  • Support Us
Podcast:
  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • Stitcher
  • Amazon Music
  • Google Podcasts
  • TuneIn
  • Quick Links

  • Currents News
  • The Tablet
  • DeSales Media Group in the Diocese of Brooklyn
  • Angelus News
  • The Catholic Channel on Sirius XM
  • Catholic Standard
  • Catholic TV

Merkel to join Pope in closing Rome interreligious event on Oct. 7

By Inés San Martín
Sep 28, 2021
|Crux
Share
Merkel to join Pope in closing Rome interreligious event on Oct. 7

In this tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016 file photo, Pope Francis, center, flanked by Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, left, and Canterbury Archbishop Justin Welby, pray together inside the Basilica of St. Francis, in Assisi, Italy. The three will meet again in Rome, Oct. 7, in a prayer for peace organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio, that will also include German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (Credit: Tiziana Fabi/Pool Photo via AP.)

Listen to this story:

ROME – After 16 years, German chancellor Angela Merkel will be stepping down before the end of the year. But before leaving office, she will join with Pope Francis to close an Oct. 7 interreligious and cultural encounter.

Organized by the community of Sant’Egidio, the 35th encounter in the “spirit of Assisi” will take place Oct. 6-7 under the theme of “Brothers and Sisters, Future Earth. Religions and Cultures in Dialogue” and will include a wide array of VIPs, including the grand Imam of Al-Azhar university, Ahmed Al Tayyeb; the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Patriarch Bartholomew I; the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby; and the President of the European Rabbis, Pinchas Goldschmidt.

According to the organizers, Merkel will take part in the closing of the summit as the “witness of a European leader that knew how to respond to the COVID-19 crisis with one of the foundational pillars of the European Union, that of solidarity.”

It’s their personal investment in the European Union that helped forge a friendship of sorts between the German leader and the Argentine pontiff, who met several times in person at the Vatican, including in 2016, when Francis broke a self-imposed ban on honorary recognitions and awards to receive the Charlemagne Prize, awarded each year to individuals or institutions for their service to European unification.

RELATED: Pope Francis tells Europe, ‘I Have a Dream’

In May of last year, the two leaders spoke on the phone to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to help the world’s poorest nations face the global crisis.

But their relationship was not without its hurdles: In 2016, during an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the pontiff revealed that in 2014 he had received an “angry phone call” from Merkel, after he had referred to Europe as “a grandmother”, “haggard” and “no longer fertile” during a speech to the European Parliament.

“She was a bit angry because I had compared Europe to a barren woman, incapable of producing children,” Francis said. “She asked me if I really thought Europe could no longer make children.”

“I told her yes it can, and many, because Europe has strong and deep roots,” he said, adding that “in the darkest moments it has always shown itself to have unexpected resources.”

Also on the list for next-week’s high-level event are several other political and religious leaders, including from the Buddhist and Hindu faiths, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tanzania, Liberata Mulamula.

Organizers say the event is in the “spirit of Assisi,” meaning following the premise of the historic event organized by Pope John Paul II in 1986, when various religious communities prayed in different places at the same time, affirming that peace is at the heart of every religious tradition.

As Marco Impagliazzo, president of the Community of Sant’Egidio, said during a press conference in Rome on Monday, at the core of this is the effort to turn war into “an obsolete instrument to be overcome.”

“Today, the world has changed from what it was during that first meeting, still wrapped in the Cold War,” he said. “But the theme of peace and dialogue continue to be the pillars of these meetings. It’s an encounter that not only hears the call for peace that comes from so many places, but also a moment of encounter for these friends of peace.”

To build long-lasting peace, Impagliazzo said, dialogue is necessary, as are solidarity, encounter, and the end of the weapons trade.

“We would like to open a perspective to look together at the world coming out of the pandemic,” said Impagliazzo, noting that the meeting will be attended not only by religious leaders, but also personalities of culture and politics from 40 countries around the world. “There is a need to meet in person under the banner of dialogue between the leaders of different religions to look to the future, but also to listen together to the cry of the least to understand the true state of the world.”

The themes of universal brotherhood and care for the environment emerge clearly as a common concern of all religions, he said, as does the post-pandemic world.

The meeting will be attended by people of all ages, including high school and university students and hundreds of young people from all over Europe: “It is not only a matter of listening to the thirst for peace, which rises from so many countries at war, but also of encouraging the peacemakers scattered throughout the world, to work together to overcome war.”

Follow Inés San Martín on Twitter: @inesanma

Share

Latest Stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most Popular

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Last Week in the Church
Last Week in the Church
Keep Crux Independent
Keep Crux Independent

For the cost of a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you can help keep the lights on at Crux.

Support Us
Crux
Last Week in the Church with John Allen Jr.

Tuesdays on

Tuesdays on YouTube
Tuesdays on YouTube
  • Apple PodcastsApple Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • StitcherStitcher
  • Amazon MusicAmazon Music
  • Google PodcastsGoogle Podcasts
  • TuneIn

Crux. Anytime. Anywhere.

Today’s top stories delivered straight into your inbox.

Latest
People in Congo, South Sudan see hope for real change after papal visit

Francis accuses critics of ‘instrumentalizing’ death of Benedict XVI

  • Feb 5
  • Elise Ann Allen

Pope taps American to head Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops

  • Jan 31
  • John Lavenburg

In Congo, South Sudan, Pope will see the Church on the frontlines

  • Jan 31
  • Elise Ann Allen
Pope heads to battered Congo, South Sudan as a herald of peace

Pope heads to battered Congo, South Sudan as a herald of peace

  • Jan 30
  • Elise Ann Allen

‘Rebel nuns’ of the Amalfi Coast expelled from convent, religious life

  • Feb 7
  • Crux Staff

Denver archdiocese defends firing teacher in same-sex relationship

  • Feb 7
  • John Lavenburg

Chicago alderman calls cardinal’s concerns on labor rule ‘a bunch of baloney’

  • Feb 8
  • John Lavenburg
31:34

Pope claims Benedict XVI’s death was instrumentalized: Last Week in the Church with John Allen Jr.

  • Feb 7
  • John L. Allen Jr.

People in Congo, South Sudan see hope for real change after papal visit

  • Feb 8
  • Elise Ann Allen

Despite trauma, Cameroon rape victim sees children as ‘gift from God’

  • Feb 8
  • Ngala Killian Chimtom

Chicago alderman calls cardinal’s concerns on labor rule ‘a bunch of baloney’

  • Feb 8
  • John Lavenburg
31:34

Pope claims Benedict XVI’s death was instrumentalized: Last Week in the Church with John Allen Jr.

  • Feb 7
  • John L. Allen Jr.