A one day interfaith gathering convened by Pope John Paul II at Assisi, Italy, on October 27, 1986, bringing together leaders of the world's major religious traditions to pray for world peace, each according to their own tradition rather than together in a single shared rite. More than sixty delegations attended, spanning Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and traditional African and Native American religions. It is widely treated as a landmark moment in modern interfaith relations and also drew sustained criticism from traditionalist Catholics who read it as implying that all religions are equally salvific.
Facts
The Event
Convened or Ordered By When It Happened Where It HappenedAssisi, Umbria, Italy, the birthplace of Francis of Assisi. 1 Principal PartiesMore than sixty delegations, including Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant Christian leaders alongside representatives of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and traditional African and Native American religions. 1 Disputed
How Its Legacy Is ContestedSome Catholics, including then Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, argued the shared setting implied that all religions offer equally valid paths to God, a reading the Vatican has consistently denied was intended; the day's design, prayer held separately by tradition rather than jointly in one rite, was itself meant to avoid that implication. 1 The disagreement is over how the event should be read theologically, not over what took place; the facts of who attended, where and when are not in dispute. Scholarship
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Everyone Praying, but Not Together
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The organizers of the Assisi gathering made one design choice that shaped everything said about it afterward: the delegations prayed separately, not together. Buddhist monks prayed in one space, Muslim leaders in another, the Pope with Catholic and other Christian participants in a third, all under the same October sky in the town where Francis of Assisi had lived seven centuries earlier. Nobody composed a shared liturgy for the room to recite in one voice. That separation was deliberate, meant to let each tradition remain fully itself rather than blur into a single generic religious gesture.
It did not settle the argument the day provoked. Critics, most prominently the traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, read the image of a pope standing alongside representatives of religions the Catholic Church does not consider to hold the fullness of truth as itself the message, regardless of how carefully the prayers were kept apart. Supporters read the same image as showing that people could take each other's convictions seriously enough to gather without needing to pretend those convictions were identical.
Both readings agree on what actually happened that day, which is part of why the disagreement has lasted. The facts, more than sixty delegations, one town, one date, are not contested. What the day meant is what nobody has ever fully settled, and the gathering it inspired, the annual international peace meetings organized since by the Community of Sant'Egidio, has carried the same argument forward every year since.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Assisi, Cities This source names Assisi directly: "convened by Pope John Paul II at Assisi, Italy, on October 27, 1986, bringing together leaders of the world's major religious traditions to pray for world peace, each according to their own..."
This source names John Paul II directly: "interfaith gathering convened by Pope John Paul II at Assisi, Italy, on October 27, 1986, bringing together leaders of the world's major religious traditions to pray for world peace, each according..."
Belongs to Tradition
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