Pope Leo visits the ‘School of Peace’ We traveled through the Mediterranean

Arm in Arm, young people of various faiths perform the Dabke, a traditional Arab dance, in the Italian port of Ostia, built for a visit from Pope Leo XIV.

Behind them is the bel essoir, a yacht where young people – whether from Libya and Egypt or France and Bosnia – have been sailing in the Mediterranean to promote peace.

“It means a lot to me that the Pope believes in this work and wants to come and meet us,” Jesus Marro, a 30-year-old Spaniard, told AFP.

“He believes in peace and building bridges together.”

Since March, the ship, built in 1944 and recently restored, has welcomed 200 young people aged 19 to 35 from different cultures and religions, making trips to various points in the Mediterranean.

The current journey started in Napsal and headed to Marseille, in the eighth and final round.

Coming from all parts of the Mediterranean and involved in public projects in their home countries, the young people on the board say they see the trip as an opportunity to promote dialogue where they have called out strange concerns.

On Friday afternoon, during a visit to a ship full of pilgrims organized in the port of Ostia outside Rome, the US Pope wanted to encourage them to listen to “hatred and division”.

Greeted by singing, the head of the Catholic Church came inside, inspected the cabins and shared cakes in the small dining room of the boat.

“Today’s world needs signs and testimonies that give hope more than words,” said a non-English speech in a dominant English.

– ‘Life is short’ –

While I was sailing, the participants, including Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Catholics and those without religion, helped with tasks such as cooking, cleaning and taking turns at night, giving a sense of closeness.

Christina Hilana, a 27-year-old Palestinian from a village near Ramallah in the West Bank called the experience “very moving”.

“These two years have been very painful, and leaving my country in this situation was not easy at all,” said the young woman wearing a black and white keffiyeh and gold around her neck.

Fatima Al-Wardi, a 30-year-old Iraqi Muslim who runs a humanitarian project in Baghdad, had never seen the sea before the trip.

“I wasn’t ready, I’m afraid of water, I can’t swim, but life is short and when you get a chance, you have to take it,” she said.

“Iraq has seen the American Army, the civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites, and now there is Isis. We have had a lot of endless conflicts,” he said.

– ‘School of Peace’ –

The organizer of the project, the Catholic priest Alexis Leproux from Marseille, said that every day the smoothness of the youth on different topics such as the environment, the economy, the dialogue of women.

It is about ‘creating a culture of unity as an alternative to a culture of conflict and competition, and that can be learned’, he said.

Back in the world, the participants continued the experience during seminars and workshops in the cities they visited as part of the 2025 program of the Catholic Church “Mediterranean encounter”.

Al-Wardi from Baghdad shared a passage from the Koran that he said left an impression.

“‘Go out, check people. I did it for you all so you can get to know each other … you just have to step outside your comfort zone’.”

cmk / ams / cc