Several members of the Fondazione Mediterraneo took part in this historic event together with the Latin Patriarch, Fouad Twal, at which the text of the “Post-Synodal Exhortation” was cited in the name of peace, dialogue and collaboration between Christians and Muslims.

President Capasso referred to the more than 70 appeals launched by Pope John Paul II for the Lebanon and his visit of 1997, at which the Holy Father made a historic speech in Freedom Square, comparing Beirut to Sarajevo. “It is essential to forgive and start trusting in one another again.”

More than 350,000 people attending sustained Pope Benedict XVI as he reiterated that “Peace could not be achieved in the Middle East until each person recognized his neighbor as a brother and not as his enemy”.