The Mediterranean, a meeting point

The Mediterranean faces major challenges: poverty, conflicts, religious pluralism, ecological issues, migration. But it also has enormous resources historical, religious, cultural and socioeconomic factors, which can help find answers and solutions to these challenges.

“The Mediterranean Encounters” began in 2020 in Bari, Italy. In 2022, they took place in Florence, Italy. This year, 2023, they were held in Marseille, France, from September 17 to 24. The goal of these events is bring the Churches together and at its side all actors of good will (religious communities, associations, movements, universities, businesses, etc.), so that joy and hope may be rekindled in the cultures and peoples of the Mediterranean.

On September 22 and 23, the presence of the Pope Francis in Marseille, who in the final words of his speech said: “Go forward, with courage! Be a sea of good, to confront today's poverty with a synergy of solidarity; be a welcoming port, for embrace those who seek a better future; be a beacon of peace, to break, through the culture of encounter, the dark abysses of violence and war." [To read his speech click here]

On September 22nd at the Church of Our Lady of Accoules, The Focolare Movement prepared the Vigil of Fraternity and UnityThe art of loving that unites us. The Movement's contribution to building the human family in the Mediterranean was presented. A moment of prayer, testimonies, and songs.

Margaret Karram, president of the Focolare Movement, sent a video message, from which we make the following highlights [To download the full text click here]:

As you may know, I was born and raised in Haifa, the Holy Land, and therefore I consider myself a daughter of the Mediterranean. Since I was a child, I experienced the coexistence of different peoples, cultures, and religions—at school, in my neighborhood, and in my city. This human journey has shaped my life choices and has instilled in me the conviction that it is possible to build a fraternal world.

This week's meetings are invaluable opportunities to rekindle for many, especially for us people of the Mediterranean, a great dream: that of a coexistence that knows how to integrate and appreciate diversity as a value and as a mutual enrichment.

It is the dream of 'a Mediterranean of Fraternity' One that demonstrates how differences can help us progress and overcome borders. Specifically, it's not just a cultural comparison between the peoples of the northern and southern coasts, as one might immediately think. The Mediterranean basin also encompasses lands from the East, like mine, and those from the West; therefore, it's a meeting of three continents and five shores!

(…)

Pope Francis invites dialogue as the ultimate path to fraternity; a dialogue that, as he recently reiterated in Mongolia, “does not flatten differences, but rather helps us understand and preserve them in their originality…”

But this dialogue needs a spirit that encourages it, revives it, and drives it forward: love, that love that, for us Christians, has its roots in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but which is also found in the principles of all religions and which is part of the law inscribed in the heart of every person.