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The opening session was addressed by H.E. Metropolitan Emmanuel, Metropolitan Elder of Chalcedon and chairman of the KAICIID Board of Directors, and by Imam Yahya Pallavicini, president of the European Muslim Leaders Majlis and vice-president of COREIS, alongside KAICIID's acting secretary-general. An address by H.E. Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, was delivered on his behalf by Fr Laurent Basanese, head of Office at the Dicastery and a member of the KAICIID Board of Directors.
In the opening address, Metropolitan Emmanuel reflected that the Arab world is being torn apart. “What we are witnessing constitutes a profound, almost exhaustive spiritual haemorrhaging, beyond the obvious geopolitical crisis,” he said. “And we here, shielded by distance and the security of our institutions, are called upon to speak of dialogue.”
In the sphere of religions, Metropolitan Emmanuel noted, we have grown accustomed for centuries now to emphasising difference. “To construct dogmatic walls and barricade ourselves behind the exclusivity of our own truth, cultivating, albeit sometimes inadvertently, the certainty of a supremacy that inevitably leads to rupture,” he said. “The autonomisation of religious identity from the loving community, extreme zealotry, these too are fallen phenomena, which distort the very nature of faith.”
Metropolitan Emmanuel urged those gathered not to remain at the level of sociological analysis. "The challenges transcend mere numbers of refugees or destroyed infrastructure,” he said. “The task we have before us is arduous, lengthy, and perhaps without immediate, tangible results.”
The discussions came at a consequential moment for the region and examined where interreligious and intra-religious dialogue goes next amid political transition, conflict, and deepening social divisions. The agenda included an assessment of the current political, social, and interreligious situation in the region, a dedicated discussion on Syria and intra-Muslim dialogue, including outcomes from consultations in Erbil and Lebanon, and proposed joint initiatives in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.
The delegation also participated in a private audience with Pope Leo XIV on 9 September.
Taken together, the delegation provided an unusual opportunity to speak directly with people operating at the intersection of religion, political transition, peacebuilding, and public policy across the Arab region, rather than discussing these issues only at an institutional level.
