21 June 2019 | Address of His Holiness, Meeting

MEETING ON THE THEME “THEOLOGY AFTER VERITATIS GAUDIUM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE MEDITERRANEAN”, PROMOTED BY THE PONTIFICAL THEOLOGICAL FACULTY OF SOUTHERN ITALY – SAN LUIGI SECTION – OF NAPLES, ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

Naples

[…] The Mediterranean has always been a place of transit, of exchanges, and
sometimes even of conflicts. We are all too familiar with many of them. This place
today raises a number of questions, often dramatic ones. They can be expressed in
some of the questions that we asked ourselves at the inter-religious meeting in Abu
Dhabi: how can we take care of each other within the one human family? How can
we foster a tolerant and peaceful coexistence that translates into authentic fraternity?
How can we make it so that the welcoming of the other person and of those who are
different from us because they belong to a different religious and cultural tradition
prevails in our communities? How can religions be paths of brotherhood instead of
walls of separation? These and other issues need to be discussed at various levels,
and require a generous commitment to listening, studying and dialogue in order to
promote processes of liberation, peace, brotherhood and justice. We must be
convinced: it is about starting processes, not of defining or occupying spaces. Starting
processes… […]