1986-10-27 · Assisi, Italy
The Assisi World Day of Prayer for Peace
In 1986, Pope John Paul II invited leaders of every major world religion to pray for peace in Assisi. Traditionalists were horrified. The pope did it anyway.
On October 27, 1986, Pope John Paul II gathered religious leaders from across the world in the Italian hill town of Assisi. The list was extraordinary: Buddhist monks, Hindu swamis, Jewish rabbis, Muslim imams, Sikh gurus, Shinto priests, Native American spiritual leaders, Zoroastrians, and representatives of African traditional religions, alongside leaders of every major Christian denomination. They did not pray together — the Vatican was careful about that distinction — but they came together to pray, each tradition offering prayers for peace in its own way at different locations around the city. For John Paul II, it was a dramatic implementation of Vatican II's declaration Nostra Aetate, which recognized the presence of truth and holiness in other religions. The pope believed that if religious people could not model peace among themselves, they had no business preaching it to the world. Conservative Catholics were appalled. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the traditionalist movement saw Assisi as a betrayal — a pope treating false religions as though they were equal to Catholicism. Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, was reportedly uncomfortable with the optics. Some critics pointed to images of a Buddhist statue placed on a Catholic altar at one of the prayer stations as proof that the event had crossed into syncretism. John Paul II was unmoved. He returned to Assisi for a second gathering in 2002, this time in the shadow of 9/11 and with a more explicit focus on rejecting the use of religion to justify violence. Benedict XVI held his own Assisi event in 2011, adding an invitation to nonbelievers. The Assisi gatherings did not end religious violence. But they established that the Catholic Church, whatever its claims about possessing the fullness of truth, was willing to sit with others and listen. In the context of Church history, that was new.
Why it matters
Represented the most visible papal commitment to interreligious dialogue in Church history and demonstrated the practical implications of Vatican II's openness to other religious traditions.
What Happened
Pope John Paul II invited leaders of more than 120 religious traditions to Assisi on October 27, 1986, for a World Day of Prayer for Peace. Each tradition prayed separately for peace in different locations around the city, then gathered together in a common expression of commitment to peace. The event was unprecedented in scope and generated both praise and sharp criticism. John Paul II repeated the gathering in 2002, and subsequent popes have continued the tradition.
Why It Still Matters
Assisi represented a visible turning point in how the Catholic Church relates to other religions. For most of its history, the Church had treated non-Christian religions primarily as errors to be corrected. Assisi was not syncretism — the Vatican was careful to maintain distinctions — but it was a public statement that Catholics could recognize the spiritual sincerity of other traditions and work alongside them for common goals. The internal Catholic debate it triggered, between those who see interreligious dialogue as essential and those who see it as dangerous compromise, continues to this day.