Maison de la Paix || Casa Universale delle Culture (EN)

 

 CASA UNIVERSALE DELLE CULTURE

The Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture is a place strongly representative, in which will convey the knowledge of the different identities and cultures, structuring permanently initiatives aimed at the spreading of peace, necessary for the shared development.

The Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture (MdP) is a project conceived by Michele Capasso, approved by many Countries and international organizations. It is an architecture that keeps the memory of many Peace activities which created history, often more than the wars, but it is – above all – a space "to build” Peace.

The architectonical complex has an important symbolic worth: it represents the Countries of the World engaged in the Peace process and the Countries victim of the conflicts.

Proposed by the Fondazione Mediterraneo with the “Maison des Alliances” – together with the main adherent organizations, such as the Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, the League of Arab States, the "Anna Lindh" Euro-Mediterranean Foundation and others, the MdP represents a referent point for all the ones who dedicate their lives to peace.

The symbol of the MdP is the "Totem for Peace", an artwork by the Italian sculptor Mario Molinari which the Fondazione Mediterraneo is promoting all around the world, creating the network of the "Cities for Peace".

The first seat of the MdP was inaugurated on the 14th of June 2010 (Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture) in the historical building of the Grand Hotel de Londres in Naples.

The action of the Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture aims at improving the main activities of the "Universal Forum of Cultures" in: Barcelona (2004), Monterrey (2007), Valparaiso (2010) and Naples (2013).

The Maison de la Paix performs most of the initiatives jointly with the Maison de la Méditerranée.

 

COP 16 - WORLD CONFERENCE ON BIODIVERSITY

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Cali (Colombia) | 21 October 2024
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

A delegation from the "United States of the World" and the ‘Fondazione Mediterraneo’ participated in the event, which brought together delegates from 200 governments and around ten thousand representatives of various organisations in southwest Colombia.
This year's COP16 takes place in Cali, capital of the department of Valle del Cauca (Colombia), between 21 October and 1 November 2024.
The slogan ‘Peace with Nature’ is a call for reflection to improve the relationship we have with the environment, to rethink an economic model that does not prioritise extraction, overexploitation and pollution of nature.
"This World Conference on Biodiversity - said Secretary General Michele Capasso - is one of the last opportunities to preserve the inestimable cultural heritage of the planet, and it is being held in a country and a city where the contradictions in terms of respect for Creation are most evident. Colombia is, in fact, an unparalleled treasure chest of biodiversity. According to the most up-to-date data, it is the second largest country in the world. The only one on the continent where practically all the natural environments of South America exist: the Andes and the Amazon, the Atlantic and the Pacific, the desert, the savannah and the great plains, the Caribbean islands and the long rivers".
But Colombia is also, and by far, the most dangerous country in the world for environmental defenders: 73 murders in 2023, 40 per cent of all those on the planet. They are those who fight against illegal mining, drug trafficking, monocultures, deforestation. For the first time, South America is hosting a world intervention on the environment, in anticipation of next year's climate conference in Belém, Brazil, and this is taking place in a city that symbolises Colombian violence. For this very reason, in Colombia, ‘COP16’ is seen as a great opportunity. It raises hopes, of which both the Church and, more generally, civil society and popular movements are spokesmen. The Colombian Church has a massive presence at the conference. The programme includes conferences, forums, congresses, exhibitions and documentary screenings, organised in particular by the Archdiocese of Cali, the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, the Episcopal Council of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM) and the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (Repam). Also present in Cali is a representation of the Vatican Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, as well as the Apostolic Nuncio, Msgr. Paolo Rudelli.

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MEETING WITH POPE FRANCIS

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Vatican City | 16 October 2024
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

Secretary General Professor Michele Capasso and Pia Molinari had an affectionate meeting with Pope Francis.
On this occasion, the Holy Father was shown the path of the "United States of the World" and the importance of the "Constitution" based precisely on the encyclicals "Laudato sì" and "Fratelli tutti" promulgated by the Pontiff.
Secretary General Michele Capasso stressed "how an immense famine of love and joy is invading humanity, in the face of rampant selfishness that is destroying the fundamental values of life".
On this occasion, an original copy of the text of the "Constitution of the United States of the World" containing the rights and duties of the planet's inhabitants was dedicated to the Pope.
Pia Molinari offered the Pontiff a Spanish language copy of the magazine of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians ‘DMA’ and two copies of the magazine ‘OSUM’: the first, from March 2015, reports the visit of Pope Francis to the "Totem for Peace" containing the urn with the relics of the "Unknown Migrant" in the port of Naples; the second reports the appointment of "Ambassador to the memory" of Blessed Carlo Acutis and the appointment of many young "Standard Bearers", for the Earth and for Peace.
At the end of the meeting, the first copy of Michele Capasso's book "United States of the World. Una storia davvero di Dio" and a canvas bag made by the mothers of Gaza whose children were slaughtered in the ongoing conflict.

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POPE FRANCIS RECEIVES THE FIRST COPY OF THE BOOK "UNITED STATES OF THE WORLD. A HISTORY TRULY OF GOD"

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Vatican City | 16 October 2024
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

Secretary General Professor Michele Capasso - accompanied by Pia Molinari - during a cordial meeting with Pope Francis dedicated the first copy of the book "United States of the World. A History Truly of God".
A large part of the one thousand two hundred pages - testifying to the choral action carried out by the "United States of the World" over the last forty years - is dedicated to Pope Francis.
The Pontiff lingered at length flipping through the pages in which, with a selection of images accompanying the text, the main stages of his pontificate are witnessed: the meeting with SG Capasso in Luján (Argentina) in 2008, the first trip to Lampedusa in 2013 and the meeting with members of the "United States of the World" engaged on the island in the "Peace Laboratories", the trips to Manila and other parts of the world, up to the recent trips to Asia, Oceania, Luxembourg and Belgium.
Moved, the Holy Father relived many significant moments: from the meeting for inter-religious dialogue in Abu Dhabi (September 2019) to the solitude of the "Way of the Cross in St. Peter's Square" (April 2020); from his dialogues with Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini to his incessant appeals for peace, against all wars; from his meeting in the Vatican with Shimon Peres, Abu Mazen and Bartholomew I (June 2014) to his recent visit to Venice with young people (April 2024); from his weeping before the statue of the Immaculate Conception in Rome (December 2022) to his participation in the G7 in Puglia (June 2024); from his meeting with Queen Elizabeth II (April 2014) to his meeting with the Salesians in Turin (June 2024); from the Naples Colloquium on the Mediterranean (June 2019) to his meeting with the Jesuits in Belgium (September 2024); from his visit to the "Totem for Peace" in the port of Naples with the urn of the "Unknown Migrant" (March 2015) to his prayers in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
At the end of the meeting, Pope Francis thanked for the "filial devotion" and personally took the book, thanking for the "precious gift", calling it "This is the Book of the Heart". Then, turning to Michele Capasso and Pia Molinari he exclaimed:
‘Read my new encyclical in the coming days, it is dedicated precisely to the Heart of Jesus... and do not forget to pray for me!’

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POPE FRANCIS RECEIVES THE BAG OF THE MOTHERS OF GAZA

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Vatican City | 16 October 2024
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

On the occasion of the meeting with Pope Francis, Secretary-General Michele Capasso and Pia Molinari donated to the Holy Father a canvas bag made by the mothers of Gaza who have had children killed by the conflict: on the bag, in addition to the flag of the United States of the World’, is written “Holy Father help us, we pray for you!”.

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INTERRELIGIOUS MEETING "IMAGINING PEACE TO CREATE ALTERNATIVES TO WARS AND DIVISIONS"

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Paris | 22 September 2024
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

A delegation from the "United States of the World" and the "Fondazione Mediterraneo" took part in the interreligious meeting promoted by the Community of Sant'Egidio at the Palais des Congrès in Paris entitled ‘Imagining Peace’. Speakers at the inaugural session included French President Emmanuel Macron, Andrea Riccardi, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the Grand Rabbi of France Haim Korsia, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, and Catholic Archbishop Laurent Ulrich.
Secretary-General Michele Capasso emphasised the importance of ‘creativity’ in imagining and building peace, reporting on the experience of almost forty years of commitment that, thanks to creativity, has produced concrete results.

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