October 2025; For Collaboration between Different Religious Traditions

October 2025

Pope's Prayer Intention: Let us pray that believers in different religious traditions might work together to defend and promote peace, justice and human fraternity.

The Good Samaritan

"But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' Which one of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, " You go, and do likewise."

Luke 10: 29-37

This parable challenges Christians to think about how to live in a world wounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, and by the scourge of religious intolerance, discrimination, racism, economic and ecological injustice and many other sins. We need to ask ourselves: who is wounded, and whom have we wounded or neglected? And where might we be surprised by seeing Christlike compassion in action? This story urges us to overcome religious prejudice and cultural biases in relation both to those whom we serve, and to those with whom we serve, as we strive to alleviate suffering and to restore healing and wholeness in a pluralistic world. At the same time, it gives us hope that is central to our faith and the way we live it out, when we realize that it is Christ himself, as the unexpected ‘other’ – the Samaritan – who is offering His help to the wounded one.

Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity

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Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue World Council of Churches

Pilgrims of Hope

All people have hopes and dreams, and hope offers strength to support the human will to live even in difficult times. As Christians, we hope for God’s promised kingdom in which the whole creation is reconciled and bound together in justice and peace. This hope transforms our lives, pointing us beyond the present world, and at the same time leading us to follow Christ in service of this world and its flourishing. As a result, all Christians are called to work together and collaborate with the followers of other religious traditions to fulfil our hope for a united world of justice and peace. More broadly, we are called to become men and women of hope, working together with all persons of goodwill for a better world.

Hope is an essential feature of all religions. Throughout human history, we know that religious hope has often inspired believers to care in love and compassion for those who suffer the tragedies of the human condition. Today, we need universal and shared ethical and spiritual values to inject a new hope into the pandemic ravaged world. In this respect, religions can offer a precious contribution to reawaken and guide humanity in building a new social order at the local, regional, national, and international levels. This new vision needs to be based on the unity of the human family as well as on a heritage of moral values common to all human beings. Today, there is a global interconnectedness that urges us to assume planetary responsibility based on common religious 10 Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity and ethical values to serve and heal the post-COVID-19 world. We are called to reengage with the world, particularly in response to the grievous woundedness in ourselves, our families, our cities and nations, and in the whole of creation.

Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity

Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue World Council of Churches

Universal Fraternity

You have witnessed the remarkable efforts made by Pope Francis in favour of interreligious dialogue. Through his words and actions, he opened new avenues of encounter, to promote “the culture of dialogue as the path; mutual collaboration as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard” (A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019). I thank the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue for the essential role it plays in this patient work of encouraging meetings and concrete exchanges aimed at building relationships based on human fraternity.

In a special way I greet our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters. Because of the Jewish roots of Christianity, all Christians have a special relationship with Judaism. The conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate emphasises the greatness of the spiritual heritage shared by Christians and Jews, encouraging mutual knowledge and esteem. The theological dialogue between Christians and Jews remains ever important and close to my heart. Even in these difficult times, marked by conflicts and misunderstandings, it is necessary to continue the momentum of this precious dialogue of ours.

Relations between the Catholic Church and Muslims have been marked by a growing commitment to dialogue and fraternity, fostered by esteem for these our brothers and sisters who “worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to humanity” (ibid., 3). This approach, based on mutual respect and freedom of conscience, is a solid foundation for building bridges between our communities.

To all of you, representatives of other religious traditions, I express my gratitude for your participation in this meeting and for your contribution to peace. In a world wounded by violence and conflict, each of the communities represented here brings its own contribution of wisdom, compassion and commitment to the good of humanity and the preservation of our common home. I am convinced that if we are in agreement, and free from ideological and political conditioning, we can be effective in saying “no” to war and “yes” to peace, “no” to the arms race and “yes” to disarmament, “no” to an economy that impoverishes peoples and the Earth and “yes” to integral development.

The witness of our fraternity, which I hope we will be able to show with effective gestures, will certainly contribute to building a more peaceful world, something that all men and women of good will desire in their hearts.

Address of Pope Leo to the Representatives of

other Churches and Ecclesial Communities, and other Regions.

An Ecumenical Christian Prayer

O God, Trinity of love, from the profound communion of your divine life, pour out upon us a torrent of fraternal love. Grant us the love reflected in the actions of Jesus, in his family of Nazareth, and in the early Christian community.

Grant that we Christians may live the Gospel, discovering Christ in each human being, recognizing him crucified in the sufferings of the abandoned and forgotten of our world, and risen in each brother or sister who makes a new start.

Come, Holy Spirit, show us your beauty, reflected in all the peoples of the earth, so that we may discover anew that all are important and all are necessary, different faces of the one humanity that God so loves. Amen.

FRATELLI TUTTI, POPE FRANCIS

ON FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP