For the month of October, Pope Leo XIV invites us to pray  “that believers in different religious traditions might work together to defend and promote peace, justice, and human fraternity.”

This prayer intention comes in a particularly significant month: it marks the 60th anniversary of Nostra aetate, the declaration of the Second Vatican Council that inaugurated a new era in the relationship between the Catholic Church and other religions—a time of dialogue, respect, and collaboration, more urgent than ever in a world marked by division, war, and misunderstanding.

At a time when the temptation of conflict seems to prevail, the Pope calls us to awaken the awareness of what unites us and to cultivate concrete forms of cooperation: “to live, pray, work, and dream together,” as brothers and sisters.

Lord Jesus,
You, who in diversity are one
and look lovingly at every person,
help us to recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters,
called to live, pray, work, and dream together.

We live in a world full of beauty,
but also wounded by deep divisions.
Sometimes, religions, instead of uniting us,
become a cause of confrontation.

Give us your Spirit to purify our hearts,
so that we may recognize what unites us
and, from there, learn again how to listen
and collaborate without destroying.

May the concrete examples of peace,
justice and fraternity in religions
inspire us to believe that it is possible to live
and work together, beyond our differences.

May religions not be used as weapons or walls,
but rather lived as bridges and prophecy:
making the dream of the common good credible,
accompanying life, sustaining hope
and being the yeast of unity in a fragmented world.

Amen.