THE MAISON DE LA PAIX

 

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.

 

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”.

The test of the Exhortation is important for many reasons, especially those relating to the links between religion and politics (paras. 29 and 30) and laity, etc.

 

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An operational meeting took place at the Secretariat of the World Urban Forum with directors of UN-HABITAT, young people and women to discuss the themes of women and youths, which are programmed for 2 September.

The Fondazione Mediterraneo is a partner at these events.

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