Samantha Lin developed an academic year-long interreligious dialogue program with emerging young leaders in order to facilitate connections among the Catholic Church and local religious (Muslim, Christian) communities in Rome. The rationale for the project was to change the dynamic of interreligious dialogue from static to dynamic and from academic to lived, while simultaneously shifting the traditional nodes of power away from entrenched religious leaders to younger, upcoming student leaders. It also aimed to introduce a broad range of interfaith topics to the Roman community through conversations with experts in the subjects.
The target audience were college students from Israel and the United States studying in Rome.
The project was implemented in collaboration with the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas and several sessions were supported by the by the United States Embassy of the Holy See Programming included a session entitled “Religion in Dialogue From the Local to the Political” in which 40 students and interested individuals gathered for an evening of conversation.
