Fraternity is “the only possible architecture for a sustainable future,” Cardinal George Jakob Koovakad, prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, said as he reflected on forty years of the “spirit of Assisi.” He placed at the heart of his reflection the Christian response to war: a humanity that prays, walks together and disarms itself first.
On 7 October 2026, the cardinal delivered an address at the Pontifical University Antonianum entitled “The Meeting of 27 October 1986 and Leo XIV’s *Magnifica Humanitas*.” The event was organized by the Franciscan Institute of Spirituality as the first in a series of meetings titled “The Spirit of Assisi: Between Memory and Prophecy.”
The starting point for his address was the historic World Day of Prayer for Peace, held in Assisi on 27 October 1986, when Saint John Paul II met with representatives of the world’s religious traditions. A photograph of the meeting, published by Vatican News, shows the Pope and religious representatives in front of the Porziuncola.
Linking that event with Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical *Magnifica Humanitas*, Koovakad stressed that although forty years separate them, both convey the same message: “The human person is greater than any power that seeks to diminish them.” Those who believe in peace, he emphasized, retain their confidence in fraternity as the foundation of a sustainable future.
War is not an inevitable fate
The cardinal recalled that the challenge in 1986 was “not to allow the logic of blocs or the ideological denial of the meaning of religion to have the last word.” Today, he said, it is necessary “not to allow the logic of force, amplified by algorithms, to convince us that war is an inevitable fate.”
In both cases, he explained, the Christian response is the same: “A humanity that prays, walks together and disarms itself first.” Such a humanity bears witness to fraternity as the only possible path. No other model can endure, the cardinal believes: “Neither the balance of fear, nor the arms race, nor technological dominance without responsibility.”
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the historic meeting, Vatican News also announces Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Assisi. From 25 to 27 October 2026, the city will host an interreligious prayer for peace, the 40th annual meeting in the series launched by Saint John Paul II.
