Maison de la Paix || Casa Universale delle Culture (EN)

 

CASA UNIVERSALE DELLE CULTURE

The Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture is a place strongly representative, in which will convey the knowledge of the different identities and cultures, structuring permanently initiatives aimed at the spreading of peace, necessary for the shared development.

The Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture (MdP) is a project conceived by Michele Capasso, approved by many Countries and international organizations. It is an architecture that keeps the memory of many Peace activities which created history, often more than the wars, but it is – above all – a space "to build” Peace.

The architectonical complex has an important symbolic worth: it represents the Countries of the World engaged in the Peace process and the Countries victim of the conflicts.

Proposed by the Fondazione Mediterraneo with the Maison des Alliances – together with the main adherent organizations, such as the Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, the League of Arab States, the "Anna Lindh" Euro-Mediterranean Foundation and others, the MdP represents a referent point for all the ones who dedicate their lives to peace.

The symbol of the MdP is the "Totem for Peace", an artwork by the Italian sculptor Mario Molinari which the Fondazione Mediterraneo is promoting all around the world, creating the network of the "Cities for Peace".

The first seat of the MdP was inaugurated on the 14th of June 2010 (Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture) in the historical building of the Grand Hotel de Londres in Naples.

The action of the Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture aims at improving the main activities of the "Universal Forum of Cultures" in: Barcelona (2004), Monterrey (2007), Valparaiso (2010) and Naples (2013).

The Maison de la Paix performs most of the initiatives jointly with the Maison de la Méditerranée.

 

The Secretary-General of the United States of the World, Prof. Michele Capasso, was interviewed during the "Porta a Porta" programme on 2 November 2023, hosted by Bruno Vespa.
On this occasion, speaking about Gustavo Rol, Secretary General Capasso recalled his meeting and friendship with Rol and his appeal to young people for the United States of the World.

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The "United States of the World" and the "Fondazione Mediterraneo", present with their network for humanitarian initiatives, launch from Gaza a heartfelt appeal for an end to the war actions that began with Hamas' senseless assault on Israel.
Blind faith in force has destroyed all compassion, rejected all dialogue, and is proudly advancing in Gaza amidst the ruins and deaths of hundreds of civilians as well as in so many villages in Israel amidst the fear and casualties of more than 3,000 rockets from Gaza.
Europe and the governments of the West, just as they were mute when the holocaust of the Jews was being prepared and perpetrated, now tergiversate with empty words, waiting until, the fighting over, the victor grants them the semblance of having brokered peace. 
It is up to civil society to rise up and say enough!
To say loud and clear that human values, which are the hard-won achievement of its history and the glory of its culture, must always be respected, now and immediately, in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem and everywhere in the world.
"With broken hearts," say the United States of the World, "we witness yet another resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The many efforts we have made, the many appeals spread all over the world, the meetings in our headquarters in Naples with Shimon Peres, Arafat, Abu Mazen, Mubarak and other exponents of the Arab countries had led to concrete progress in the peace process. The United States of the World has always proposed itself as an institutional place for dialogue, concretely analysing prospects for resolving the conflict in order to build shared peace responses".

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The 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops opened in the Vatican, whose work will end at the end of October 2023.
Pope Francis also opened to listen to lay people and exponents of civil society: among them some members of the "United States of the World" and the "Fondazione Mediterraneo".
"The Synod is neither a parliament nor a customs". The Pope repeated this several times during the Mass that opened the Synod of Bishops on St. Francis Day, 4 October, with the participation with voting rights of other members of the People of God. And in the afternoon he reiterated this in his address to the synod fathers gathered in the Paul VI Hall.
Pope Francis insisted that one should not look at this assembly as a place of confrontation on this or that issue ("open certain doors," he added in passing), but as a walk together to listen to God. "We are at the opening of the Synodal Assembly," he recalled, "and we do not need an immanent gaze, made up of human strategies, political calculations or ideological battles. "We are not here to conduct a parliamentary meeting or a reform plan. No. We are here to walk together with the gaze of Jesus, who blesses the Father and welcomes all those who are weary and oppressed. Let us therefore start from the gaze of Jesus, which is a blessing and welcoming gaze".

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The Secretary General Michele Capasso, the Council of Ambassadors, the members of the Governing Board, the International Committee, and the heads of the autonomous sections and branch offices express their deep condolences on the passing of Giorgio Napolitano.
A dear friend, Giorgio Napolitano, who always supported our Foundation and was even closer as President of the Italian Republic.
A great pro-European with the awareness that Europe had to transform itself into UNITED STATES OF EUROPE and look at the Mediterranean not as a frontier but as an opportunity for exchanges of knowledge, cultures and know-how.
How can we not remember the discussions on politics "from below", which had to be the foundation of every Party and every aggregation, and his visit in February 2000 to the headquarters of the Fondazione Mediterraneo with the late Andrea Geremicca!
And then the singular way in which his election was announced in Algiers: as President of the Republic (see page 23 onwards): https://www.fondazionemediterraneo.org/.../nostro.../01.pdf
Giorgio Napolitano's example will guide us through this difficult time in history.

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The United States of the World and the Fondazione Mediterraneo took part in the "Mediterranean Meetings" organised in Marseille from 17 to 24 September 2023, at the initiative of the Italian Bishops' Conference: a process of confrontation between the dioceses of the countries bordering the Mediterranean began in 2020 in Bari. This process is in the spirit of Pope Francis' 'Mediterranean' journeys, from Lampedusa (2013) to Marseille (2023), passing through Tirana, Sarajevo, Lesbos, Cairo, Jerusalem, Cyprus, Naples, Rabat, Malta, etc.
After 490 years since the visit of Clement VII, a Pope visits the city of Marseilles.

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