Encounters - 2023

Russian writer and dissident Mikhail Shiskin (Archivio Meeting)

Mikhail Shishkin: "Only culture can rebuild"

EncountersMaria Acqua Simi

One of the greatest contemporary Russian authors, now in exile: “When the war ends, it will be language, music, poetry that will build bridges between Russians and Ukrainians. That is why I do not stop writing.”

Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo in Rimini (Photo: Meeting Archive)

Venezuela: "Within fatigue, we are joyful Christians"

EncountersMaria Acqua Simi

The exhibition on Blessed José Gregorio Hernández, his first time at the Meeting, the challenges of a country in crisis. Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo, Archbishop of Caracas, speaks.

John Cavadini (Photo: Matt Cashore/ University of Notre Dame /Catholic Press Photo)

Be realists, ask for the impossible

EncountersLuca Fiore

American theologian John Cavadini describes the “countercultural” value of Giussani’s book: “I am so moved just to know that my students have the chance to read a book like this.” From June Traces.

Jim Foley (© Ansa)

The forgiveness of a mother

Encounters

Diane Foley lost a journalist son, kidnapped and beheaded by Isis in Syria. But resentment did not have the last word: "God teaches us mercy. We all need mercy.” She met his murderer, and convinced the U.S government to intervene in defense of hostages.

Boris Gudziak (Catholic Press Photo)

Ukraine: Safeguard your heart

EncountersLuca Fiore

His story and that of his martyred land. The tale of a people who live on. In April Traces, Monsignor Borys Gudziak, Metropolitan Archbishop of Philadelphia of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, speaks of a people who live on.

Fr. Pier Luigi Maccalli

Maccalli: The chains, the desert and freedom

EncountersAnna Leonardi

Kidnapped for more than two years by Islamic terrorists, Fr. Pier Luigi Maccalli, a missionary in Africa, recounts his dialogue with his captors. And with God. From the March issue of Tracce.

Erik Varden during the dialogue in New York (Photo: NY Encounter)

Bringing forth the fountain

EncountersLuca Fiore

A dialogue with Erik Varden, Cistercian monk and Bishop of Trondheim, a guest for the first time at the New York Encounter. From the March issue of Tracce.

Eshkol Nevo (Photo: Leonardo Cendamo/Getty Images)

Eshkol Nevo: Unimaginable correspondence

EncountersAnna Leonardi

Today “we tend to limit ourselves to a single point of view”, but literature is where “we feel close to the most distant, where the most estranged becomes familiar.” From the January issue of Tracce, a dialogue with the Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo