The theme of peace took center stage at the Rimini Meeting this week as Pope Francis offered a message of encouragement in the face of the reality of war to the hundreds of thousands of attendees gathered on the opening day of the annual festival organized by the lay Catholic movement Communion and Liberation.

Pope Francis urged the meeting’s participants not to be discouraged by war and the challenges of today but to search out “the beauty of life” with passion in an Aug. 19 message sent to the Catholic festival through Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, for his part, discussed prospects for peace in the Israel-Hamas war Tuesday in a conversation with Bernhard Scholz, president of the Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples Foundation.

He emphasized the importance of the current negotiations as possibly a last chance for peace before the situation becomes “really tragic.”

“I have to say that the impact this war has had on both the Israeli and Palestinian populations is unparalleled, unprecedented,” said Cardinal Pizzaballa, who is head of Latin-rite Catholics in the Holy Land. 

“Everything depends on the coming days,” the Latin patriarch said. “That’s why I said that it’s important to pray: It’s the only thing that is left for us to do.”

The Rimini Meeting, formally named the Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples, is taking place Aug. 20–25 around the theme “If We Are Not After the Essential, Then What Are We After?” in the northeastern Italian city that gives it its name.

More than half a million people are expected to attend; approximately 800,000 participated in the festival in 2022.

Now in its 45th year, the event includes 140 panels and discussions with about 450 Italian and international speakers, 16 exhibitions, 18 theatrical performances, and a number of sports activities and literary events. An estimated 3,000 volunteers are participating in the meeting.

An estimated 17,000 children and teenagers took part in the 2023 meeting, and this year’s children’s workshops are also expected to be well attended.

In his message to the gathering, the Pope urged attendees to take an active role in the Church’s mission.

“As the icy winds of war blow, adding to recurring phenomena of injustice, violence, and inequality ... it is imperative to stop and ask: Is there anything worth living for and hoping for?” the pontiff’s message said.

“In the face of the temptation of discouragement, the complexity of the current crisis and, in particular, the challenge of a peace that seems impossible,” Parolin wrote, “the Holy Father urges everyone to become responsible protagonists of change, actively collaborating in the Church’s mission, in order to give life together to places where Christ’s presence can be seen and touched.”

In the papal message sent on the eve of the weeklong meeting, Parolin wrote that Pope Francis wants everyone to search for the most essential, necessary part of life, which is faith in Jesus Christ, and “for what gives meaning to our lives, first of all by stripping ourselves of what weighs down our daily lives…”

“In doing so, we discover that the value of human existence does not consist in things, in successes achieved, in the race of competition, but first and foremost in that relationship of love that sustains us, rooting our journey in trust and hope: It is friendship with God, which is then reflected in all other human relationships, that grounds the joy that will never fail,” it continued.

During his onstage interview Aug. 20, Cardinal Pizzaballa said “interreligious dialogue is in crisis” because of the war in Israel and Palestine.

“This situation is a watershed. There are no public meetings. At the institutional level, we have difficulty speaking to one another, we can’t manage to meet,” he said.

The cardinal noted that the war, for everyone, has brought forth “feelings that were already there but now have become the common language: hatred, resentment, revenge, justice understood as vengeance, deep distrust, inability to recognize the essence of the other.”

“The war will finish one way or another,” but it will be difficult to rebuild after this division, he added.

Other events at the Rimini Meeting will also address the theme of peace in the Middle East, including a talk Aug. 21 on the preservation of holy sites and how to foster dialogue in the Holy Land.

On Aug. 23, Pope Francis’ envoy for peace in Ukraine, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, will participate in a roundtable on “Educating for Reconciliation” with the secretary-general of the Muslim World League, Muhammad Bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa. 

Bishop Aldo Berardi, apostolic vicar of northern Arabia and Kuwait, and Bishop Paolo Martinelli, apostolic vicar of southern Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, will also participate.