Interview with Bernhard Scholz, President of the Meeting, on the Theme of the 2026 Edition: Witnesses from History’s Wounded Places, the Holy Father’s Visit and Building Peace Day by Day
Abstract: The 2026 edition of the Meeting takes as its cultural and spiritual horizon the final verse of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, “the Love that moves the sun and the other stars”, recasting it as a question for our own time: is it still possible to recognise a principle of goodness in an age marked by war, hatred and fragmentation? In this interview, the President of the Meeting explains the meaning of the chosen theme, anticipates the participation of witnesses from Ukraine, Lebanon, the Holy Land and Nigeria, and reflects on the significance of the Holy Father’s visit, scheduled for 24 August. At the heart of the discussion is an understanding of peace not as the abstract outcome of political decisions alone, but as a human process capable of taking shape within wounded societies through people who preserve a concrete hope and rebuild relationships where history seemed to have broken them beyond repair.
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A Theme That Speaks to the Present
On Wednesday, 8 July, the Italian Embassy to the Holy See hosted the presentation of the 47th edition of the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, which will take place at the Rimini Expo Centre from 21 to 26 August 2026. On that occasion, the theme of the new edition was unveiled, inspired by a particularly demanding line from the final verse of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy: “the Love that moves the sun and the other stars”. The choice is not merely evocative, but introduces a precise interpretation of humanity and history, one that becomes all the more challenging as the present appears increasingly dominated by conflict, violence and new forms of dehumanisation.
The title affirms that at the origin of the movement of the universe and of human existence lies a principle of goodness, a striving towards fulfilment which, nevertheless, does not impose itself mechanically upon human freedom. Love may be accepted or rejected, and it is precisely within this possibility that the paradox of history takes shape: goodness continues to act without cancelling human responsibility.
The programme of the Meeting emerges from this apparent contradiction. It will not offer an abstract reflection on love, but encounters with people who, in some of the world’s most deeply wounded places, have experienced the possibility of overcoming hatred, recognising the other and reopening spaces for coexistence.
Editor-in-Chief Massimiliano Mancini discussed the meaning of this choice with Bernhard Scholz, President of the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples Foundation.
Massimiliano Mancini: “The presentation of the 2026 edition opens with a particularly demanding quotation. Does a choice of this kind also point towards an exceptional edition of the Meeting?”
Bernhard Scholz: “I believe it does. The chosen title draws on the final verse of Dante’s Divine Comedy, ‘the Love that moves the sun and the other stars’, and affirms that the principle capable of moving the universe and our lives is a principle of goodness, directed towards the fulfilment of the human person. At first sight, this claim may seem difficult to reconcile with what we observe every day: wars, conflicts, cruelty and atrocities. The contradiction, however, arises from the fact that human beings are free. Love does not impose itself; it seeks to be welcomed and appeals to our freedom. The central question therefore becomes one of witness: who are the people capable of telling us how the love that reached and moved them led them to open themselves to others, overcome hatred and look differently even at those who had belonged to the opposing side? During the Meeting, we will encounter many witnesses from different parts of the world: from Ukraine, Lebanon, the Holy Land, Nigeria and other regions scarred by violence. I believe this will be one of the defining features of the 2026 edition: showing that there is a love which, when welcomed, can truly change the world.”
Massimiliano Mancini: “Are the importance of the theme and the exceptional nature of the present historical moment also confirmed by the Holy Father’s presence?”
Bernhard Scholz: “The Holy Father will attend the Meeting on 24 August, and we are deeply grateful that he accepted our invitation. His presence bears witness precisely to the ability to be both gentle and resolute in presenting the world with a different way of living and relating to others. We will welcome him by placing everything we have at his disposal, and I am convinced that his visit will leave a profound and fruitful mark on the history of the Meeting. His presence will not merely be an institutional or symbolic occasion. It is fully consistent with this year’s theme, because the Pope represents the possibility of speaking without renouncing either truth or firmness, while refusing to accept violence and hostility as the inevitable language of human and international relations.”
Massimiliano Mancini: “Among the Pontiff’s first words was his repeated appeal for a ‘disarmed and disarming peace’. The international context, however, appears to be moving in the opposite direction.”
Bernhard Scholz: “At present, we are indeed witnessing the opposite. Instability is not merely increasing; wars that seemed close to an end have spread or entered new phases of escalation. During the presentation of the Meeting, Father Ielpo, Custos of the Holy Land, expressed a very important thought: hope does not consist in the certainty that everything will turn out well, but in the possibility that, even within the most conflict-ridden situations, a resurrection may take place. We must begin from this awareness. We cannot imagine bringing every war to an end overnight. Unfortunately, new escalations continue to occur, while political and diplomatic decisions encounter limitations and resistance. Peace, however, is not built only at the level of institutions or political leadership. It also emerges through the people who live within those situations and continue to preserve an authentic hope. Peace between states must be preceded and accompanied by peace among people, because no agreement can endure while peoples continue to regard one another as irreconcilable enemies.”
Massimiliano Mancini: “Peace, then, cannot be reduced simply to the cessation of hostilities?”
Bernhard Scholz: “Exactly. When a war formally ends, a decisive question remains: who will build peace between peoples? I was born in Germany and lived close to France. For this reason, I carry with me an awareness of what happened after 1945. At that time, genuine peace between the German and French peoples seemed entirely unimaginable, especially in the light of the wounds, destruction and hatred accumulated through years of conflict. And yet, even before an institutional peace between the two states became firmly established, peace gradually began to emerge among ordinary people. Relationships were rebuilt, forms of cooperation developed, and the possibility of a shared destiny was progressively recognised. For me, this experience represents a profound source of hope. What appears impossible at a particular historical moment can become real when men and women refuse to allow the hatred they have suffered to determine their relationship with others forever.”
From Abstract Hope to Living Witness
The words of the President of the Meeting outline an edition that neither intends to ignore the gravity of the present nor to replace the reality of conflict with comforting rhetoric. The hope evoked here does not coincide with optimism, nor is it founded on the assumption that every crisis will eventually resolve itself. Rather, it rests on the possibility that, even within historical circumstances that appear irreversibly closed, human freedom may still generate experiences of reconciliation.
From this perspective, the reference to post-war Europe assumes a significance that extends far beyond personal memory. Franco-German reconciliation demonstrates that peace does not arise solely from the exhaustion of combatants or the signing of a treaty. It also depends on the gradual rebuilding of trust, the ability to confront and process memory, and the recognition of the other as a partner in dialogue rather than merely as an enemy.
Witness thus becomes the method through which the Meeting intends to address the major questions of international affairs. Geopolitical analysis remains necessary, but it is accompanied by the concrete stories of people who, while living amid war, persecution and division, have prevented hatred from becoming the only force capable of shaping history.
In this sense, the Dantean verse chosen for 2026 does not represent a poetic escape from the contradictions of the present, but a radical challenge: to ask whether, within humanity’s wounded freedom, there still exists a force capable of rebuilding what violence has destroyed. The Meeting seeks its answer not in an abstract formula, but in the voices of those who, in some of the most difficult places in the world, have already begun to transform hope into lived experience.
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