The Community of Sant'Egidio in Savè, a city in the interior of Benin, organised an interreligious dialogue meeting on the theme "The audacity of Peace".
The meeting was attended by about 500 people, representatives of Christian churches, Islam and traditional religions. Benin is a country with a great variety of religions: Christians make up 43% of the population, followed by Muslims with over 25%. The rest of the Beninese people follow local religions or animist cults.
The religious representatives addressed the urgency of building a stable and lasting peace through dialogue in an area of the country plagued by ethnic tensions between religious leaders, even in the recent past.
A sign of the harmony between the different denominations was the participation in the centenary celebration of the Saint Joseph parish in Savé, which hosted the meeting.
At the end of the event, the Appeal for Peace from the International Meeting promoted by the Community of Sant'Egidio in Berlin last September was read out, and signed by the representatives of the religions. It is a commitment "to build bridges and no walls" and to live together in respect for diversity.
