Pope Leo XIV's message inspires International Meeting for Peace in Assisi

The International Meeting for Peace opened in Assisi on October 25, bringing together representatives of various churches and world religions. The meeting follows the theme "Unarmed and Disarming Peace," which was taken from Pope Leo XIV’s message for the 2026 World Day of Peace.

The gathering marks 40 years since the first meeting of this kind was initiated by Pope John Paul II. During the opening assembly, Hala Alkarib, regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, spoke about the necessity of turning dialogue into concrete action. Alkarib noted that violence is currently spilling over from conflicts like the one in Sudan, where more than 250,000 civilians have died in the last four years. She described the current global context as hostile and prone to enabling violence.