By Kielce Gussie – Assisi
Forty years after the historic Spirit of Assisi meeting, where Pope St John Paul II stressed that “peace is a value with no frontiers,” the city of St Francis has once again become a place of dialogue between people of different cultures, languages, and faiths.
The International Meeting for Peace with the theme Unarmed and Disarming Peace, inspired by Pope Leo XIV’s message for the World Day of Peace 2026, opened in the afternoon of Oct 25.
One of the speakers at the opening assembly was Hala AlKarib, the regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, which works to document and expose human rights abuses.
Speaking to Vatican News on the sidelines of the meeting, she stressed how important the work of building peace is in a “global context that is extremely hostile and enabling violence to happen.”
Violence is spilling over
Ms Alkarib expressed her hope that this international meeting has shone a light on the issues of violence and conflict around the world.
Specifically in Sudan, the situation is dire as more than 250,000 civilians have been killed in the four years since the conflict began. Homes, churches, mosques, and museums are looted, and sexual and gender-based violence has become more common.
The danger, she said, is that “it’s not solely happening in Sudan. It’s spilling out to other parts of the Horn of Africa.”
This is where, she said, faith-based institutions need to be more engaged.
Achieving an unarmed and disarming peace stems from placing the human person at the center. “It’s about humanity. It’s about us being in existence and living in peace and sharing the resources we have, protecting our environment and protecting our ecosystems,” Ms Alkarib noted.
These messages are important in the process of building peace, she shared. Without them, “the whole issue is becoming very transactional with human life. It’s about time for faith-institutions, which represent a very powerful force to show their positions and to speak up and to come together for the good of humanity.”
Hope for the future
Ms Alkarib warned that humanity is in “a very, very dangerous and very serious situation.”
Yet, this international meeting in Assisi with people of different religions, cultures, and stories is a starting point for dialogue, but even more so, for concrete action. Ms. Alkarib stressed that she hopes these “beautiful speeches” that were given at the opening ceremony do not simply stay words. Rather that they turn into action.
She hopes that “people across faith backgrounds will come together and think strategically about how they can cultivate the power they have to seriously push for peace.”
While this task is not easy, Ms Alkarib stressed that this is the responsibility of everyone at the meeting in Assisi and beyond—to take seriously these steps and the calls to action shared through the testimonies shared at the opening of this meeting.
Ms Alkarib reiterated the urgency and need to move beyond simple conversation and take action: “I hope that it’s not only words. We need action.” – Vatican News
