ROME: Some 300 figures from the world s major religions will take part in an inter-faith dialogue on violence next month in Naples, Italy, the lay Catholic movement Sant Egidio said Monday. Participants at the Oct. 21-23 meeting will include Pope Benedict XVI, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger, and Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, director of Egypt s Al-Azhar University, the organizers said in a communiqué. Titled For a World Without Violence: Religions and Culture in Dialogue, the gathering will mark the 21st anniversary of Pope John Paul II s prayer summit for peace in Assisi, Italy, in 1976. In the face of such ever-present violence [and] the conflictual international situation ... it is urgent to reaffirm with courage the path of dialogue and cooperation between religions and cultures, the statement said. Also attending would be Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople and spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Communion, the Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad in charge of external relations for the Moscow Patriarchate, and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion. Buddhist, Hindu and Shinto representatives also would be present. Sant Egidio, best known for mediating in international conflicts, is nicknamed the little United Nations of Trastevere after the Rome district where it is headquartered. Founded in 1968, it is active in about 40 countries and considered a channel of shadow diplomacy for the Vatican.
