3,000 people of different religions will celebrate 60 years of dialogue with a silent prayer with the Pope

3,000 people of different religions will celebrate next Tuesday, October 28, a large, unprecedented meeting on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the declaration Our Age of the Second Vatican Council, on the relations of the Church with non-Christian religions.

Among those attending will be leaders and representatives of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism and traditional African religions, who will meet with Pope Leo XIV with whom they will participate in a moment of silent prayer at the end.

“This is the first time that an event of this nature has been held,” Mons. Flavio Pace, secretary of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity, said in a press conference at the Vatican.

As explained by Mons. Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku Kankanamalage, secretary of the dicastery, the event, which will combine moments of reflection, testimonies and cultural performances from different continents, will review “the main stages of these 60 years of dialogue”, from Paul VI to the current pontiff, Pope Leo XIV.

Artistic performances

The day, which will take place in the Vatican, will include a sequence of five artistic performances from various countries, conceived as a “visible expression of a common spirituality,” according to the Vatican official.

Among the performances, a Sri Lankan dance show will be presented with young Italians – made up of Christians and Buddhists – which symbolizes the encounter between cultures and faiths. From Indonesia, another traditional choreography will evoke Hinduism, Catholicism and Islam, as a sign of interreligious harmony.

The program will also include a performance by artists from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who will combine traditional religious singing with African spiritual poetry. Finally, there will be a musical performance from the United States titled Be Are the New Worlda contemporary hymn.

The event will also feature a cultural event by the Nefesh Triowhich will perform traditional Jewish music fused with Yemeni melodies, symbolizing the diaspora and the encounter between cultures. On the stage there will be a podium with the original text of Our Agean olive plant and a peace lamp, symbols of reconciliation and hope.

Testimonies of the transformative power of dialogue

Along with the artistic representations, there will be three personal testimonies that will show how faith and interreligious dialogue transform concrete lives. The first will be the Buddhist Hsin Tao, born in 1948 in Laikan, near Lashio (Myanmar), who suffered a childhood deeply marked by war and was recruited at the age of nine as a child soldier. In 2001 he created the Museum of World Religions in New Taipei, conceived as a space for interreligious dialogue and understanding between peoples.

The second testimony will come from the Holy Land. Sarah Bernstein, executive director of the Rossing Center, an interfaith organization based in Jerusalem that promotes an inclusive society for all religious, ethnic and national groups in the area, with a focus on dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims, will speak.

The third testimony will present the experience of the young people from the “Bel Espoir” project, who sailed together through the Mediterranean to promote peace.

A message from the Pope and the symbolic gesture of the seeds

The culminating moment will be the speech of the Holy Father, who will offer a reflection on the path traveled in these six decades of interreligious dialogue and on the challenges of the future.

“The Pope will invite everyone to continue walking together with the hope he has in dialogue, even in the difficult times we live in,” said Bishop Indunil. Before the final prayer, some Italian children will distribute small bags of seeds to the participants, as a symbol of their commitment to continue sowing peace.

“The seed of hope was planted 60 years ago,” the secretary recalled, “and today we must continue sowing, especially encouraging young people to become new sowers of peace and love.”

The meeting will conclude with a moment of silent prayer, evoking the words of Saint John Paul II in Assisi in 1986: “All authentic prayer is raised by the Holy Spirit.”

Bishop Pace concluded by emphasizing that, despite the progress, the path begun with Our Age It is still a developing process. “60 years of awareness, dialogue and relationships have passed; although there have been difficulties and slowdowns, there is no turning back. We can only move forward, sowing hope for the future, as the children who participate in these events remind us,” he said.