Religions and the culture of peace - the Bologna experience as a European value

Europe, which is increasingly a multicultural and multiracial Continent, is facing problems posed by a changing society which sometimes expresses difficult and contradictory needs. The profound economic crisis of the last ten years, which affected European countries, has also sharpened forms of incomprehension and rivalry between social classes and between different cultural expressions.

Mons Stefano Ottani, General Vicar of the Curia of Bologna, will explain the initiatives undertaken by himself over these years and which have seen the full participation of the Jewish and Islamic communities, as Prof Marina Marini and Yusuf Pisano will explain, together with Beatrice Draghetti and Massimiliano Zarri. The Bologna initiative has created a model of dialogue and cooperation that has given life to the ‘Abraham and Peace’ Association which Europe looks to with great interest.

The seminar will be chaired by the Co-Chairmen of the EPP Group Working Group on Intercultural Relations and Interreligious Dialogue György Hölvényi and Jan Olbrycht and will be attended by numerous EPP Group Members, guests from other European Institutions, Foundations, religious organisations and journalists.