Pope Francis. Photo: Casa Rosada via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Pope Francis met with officials from Jerusalem’s Hebrew University to develop and plan an interfaith educational program seeking to promote civic opportunity and dialogue in the Middle East.

According to organizers, the initiative will be launched at an international conference hosted by the Vatican’s Pontifical Scholas Occurentes program and Hebrew University’s Truman Research Institute next summer, and will “bring together youth, educators and academics to Jerusalem under the banner of ‘The Culture of Encounter Through Education.’”

International scholars and organizations dealing with social issues, as well as researchers from around the world, are expected to join the participants at Hebrew University “to discuss the promotion of peace and a better future, and the role of academia in social action.”

“Religion can bring us together and teach us to create the bonds of friendship. With the intuition of Scholas and the intelligence and history of the Hebrew University, I am sure that this will produce great changes in the world,” the Pope said.

Hebrew University’s president, Professor Menahem Ben-Sasson said, the school is “excited to work with Pope Francis and Scholas to foster encounters between young people, academia, and the real world, towards progress and peace. This project is aimed at building a better future for the world.”