“You go to the Holy Land not just for humanitarian reasons, but also to raise awareness of the needs of those martyred lands in the so-called West, to receive again and anew a non-written message, a lifeblood. All of us, Christians and believers, as well as our whole culture, need to draw again on those roots”. The president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), Card. Gualtiero Bassetti, said this in an interview with the magazine “Terrasanta” (Holy Land). The cardinal recalls that during his visits to the Holy Land, “I asked, and ask, the conversion of everyone’s hearts” so that “the realisation of a just and lasting peace does not remain a mirage, but becomes a reality for millions of people, in a spirit of cooperation, respect and harmony among peoples”. According to the CEI President, “it is very important today to reinterpret the Franciscan qualities of encounter, dialogue and respect”, in light of the meeting between St. Francis and the Sultan of Babylon. The archbishop explains what lessons can be learned from that episode: “We need to work a lot on the formation of our young people, but also learn from them, trust them and their questions, for they are able to reach out to the other without those prejudices and habits that sometimes risk paralysing our societies”. “Interreligious dialogue must be strengthened – the cardinal concludes -, not so much to comply with a command, but out of an authentic desire to meet the other. Indeed, this does not take us away from, but back to the roots of our evangelical identity”.