Over 60 religious leaders from diverse organizations and communities will participate in an interreligious audience on 3 November 2016 with His Holiness Pope Francis in Rome. The interreligious audience will mark the beginning of an International Symposium organized by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Vienna-based International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID) at the culmination of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.

The religious leaders and exemplars of mercy attending the audience will represent a diversity of religions and communities. They include: His Eminence Abdel-Latif Derian, Grand Mufti of Lebanon (Islam), Rabbi Moshe Levin, Executive Director Conference of European Rabbis (Judaism) Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh, Spiritual Leader and Chairman of the Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (Sikhism), Swami Chidanand Saraswati (Hinduism), Sheikh Abdul Kareem Khasawneh, Grand Mufti of Jordan (Islam), Bishop Elias Toumeh, Bishop of Wadi al Nasara, Syria (Orthodox Church of Antioch), His Beatitude Emir Brin Yazidi (Yazidi) and His Excellency Shawki Alam, Grand Mufti of Egypt (Islam). They will be joined by members of the KAICIID Board of Directors Reverend Kosho Niwano, Dr. Sayyed Ataollah Mohajerani, Dr. Mohammad Sammak, Dr. Hamad Al-Majed and Chief Rabbi David Rosen.

The interreligious symposium highlights the vital importance of mercy for peace and reconciliation. Participants include religious leaders from eight religions, and also individuals, who through their life’s work, exemplify the practice of mercy for peace and reconciliation.

The exemplars include many practitioners of mercy and peacemakers from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

KAICIID Secretary General Faisal Bin Muaammar said: “We wish to provide witness for the concrete, daily, hard work of countless exemplars for whom mercy is a way of life. Every day they practice interreligious collaboration and charity. They support peaceful coexistence, alleviate poverty, and reconcile people separated by conflict. As His Holiness Pope Francis reminds us all, we have a responsibility to make our world more merciful, beginning with ourselves, but extending to our families, communities, societies, and countries.”

The meeting will be held over two days from 3-4 November at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Media persons are cordially invited to attend the sessions as observers with prior accreditation. Accreditation, interviews with participants, panelists and exemplars can be arranged by contacting:  Peter Kaiser, Director of Communications/ KAICIID; mobile: +436642310593; email: peter.kaiser@kaiciid.org