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.

 

The United States of the World and the Fondazione Mediterraneo collaborated with the "Maria Ausiliatrice Institute" of Naples for the 2023 edition of the "Concert for Peace for the Emergency in Ukraine and Syria".
Presented by Veronica Maya and Tonino Bernardelli, 80 young students of the Symphony Orchestra of the Conservatorio "San Pietro a Majella di Napoli" conducted by Maestro Leonardo Quadrini performed in the courtyard of the Institute.
Secretary-General Michele Capasso and Director of the Museum of Peace Pia Molinari attended the event.
On this occasion, the "Standard Bearers of the United States of the World" were named.

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The international meeting on "Volunteering and the Challenges of Change in Europe" was held at the headquarters of the "United States of the World" and the "Fondazione Mediterraneo", with the participation of representatives of the main volunteer associations.
Coordinated by Senator Giuseppe Lumia - President of the Permanent Commission "Volunteering and Human Rights" of the United States of the World - the meeting produced several recommendations including that of achieving European coordination of volunteering with shared rules.
On this occasion, the "Padua European Capital of Volunteering" joined the United States of the World.

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The President of the Fondazione Mediterraneo Michele Capasso and Director General Pia Molinari spoke at the presentation event of the "Only One" campaign launched by the "Marevivo" Association and held on the school ship "Palinuro".
On this occasion, the joining ceremony of "Marevivo" to the United States of the World took place.
Present at the event were Marevivo's Director General Carmen Di Penta, Marevivo's Vice President and President of the Dorhn Foundation, Ferdinando Boero, and 54 young students from the "Francesco Morosini" Naval Military School who embarked on their "sea baptism" and will accompany the 87-member crew for the next four weeks.

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Elisabetta Baldi Caponnetto, widow of Judge Antonino Caponnetto, has ascended to heaven.
To all of us she was simply "Grandmother Betta," as was "Grandfather Nino."
The United States of the World and the Fondazione Mediterraneo remember a woman who had taken up her husband's meritorious and courageous battle and over the years had gone to great lengths to meet boys and girls in schools, with the aim of spreading an anti-mafia culture among the new generations.
How can we fail to remember the visit to her home to present the "Mediterranean Award for Legality" to the memory of Nonno Nino and her delicacy in placing the "Totem for Peace, the Award, among her most cherished things.
And then the many meetings, the generosity in writing the preface to the volume "La Grande Méditerranée," the meeting at the Senate with President Pietro Grasso to support the "United States of the World" and the "Totem for Peace."
His example and spirit will remain as an inspiration and motivation for all of us and for those engaged in the front lines of the fight against all mafias.

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A delegation from the Fondazione Mediterraneo led by President Michele Capasso took part in the funeral of Giovanbattista Cutolo, the 24-year-old musician killed in Piazza del Gesù on 31 August by a 17-year-old from the Quartieri Spagnoli who shot him dead with three gunshots for trivial reasons connected with parking his moped.
City mourning in Naples for the last farewell to Giovanbattista: at 2pm the funeral chamber, then the start of the service by the Archbishop of Naples, Don Mimmo Battaglia, said:
"We all huddle around Daniela, Franco and Lulu. We are here not to pray for Giò Giò, but to pray with him because he lives'.
Full Piazza del Gesù for the musician's last farewell, the crowd welcomed the coffin as it left the Gesù Nuovo Church amidst applause and tears, as a sign of condolences and closeness with the family, while the Scarlatti musicians sang the Ode to Joy to the rhythm of the funeral march.
Many Neapolitan singers and musicians joined the appeal of Giò Giò's mother, Daniela Di Maggio.
After his father, the mother of the 17-year-old from the Spanish quarters who killed Giovanbattista Cutolo, 24, a musician, also asked the family for forgiveness.
"Naples must rid itself of this havoc," said Michele Capasso, "and for this it is necessary to 'rope in' civil society and institutions, involving young people in particular in a difficult but not impossible task of redeeming the city, as has happened so many times in the past.
"It was and is an enormous pain because it is an absurd death, for no reason, and this affects everyone in the depths of their hearts, but it must also be an opportunity to have more and more civic participation in the city. This terrible death is only the latest, we must remember Francesco Pio, who died only a few months ago and in similar circumstances, and the many other innocent victims of violence and the Camorra, but if we manage to react, if we give a positive perspective to our city then it will mean that these deaths were not in vain'.
At the end of her son's funeral, Daniela Di Maggio, Giovanbattista's mother, announced that she would be at Palazzo Chigi tomorrow, received by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni:
"Tomorrow I will go to Premier Meloni especially for this, because she is very close to me, the institutions have all come. Giovanbattista's innocent death must serve the redemption of humanity, it was a crime against humanity to kill my son".

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