Observatory on Europe: Religions and Other Cultures (EURECA) at the Luiss Research Center for European Analysis and Policy (LEAP) and EMUNA ITALIA

 2025/2026 Academic Year

Throughout history, religions have been, on the one hand, a force of civilization, vectors of humanity, ethical principles and social cohesion; on the other, they were misinterpreted, manipulated and radicalized, used as causes and instruments of war. In societies rich in multiple cultural references, such as those of the Member States of the European Union, the different religions and other non-confessional cultures can fully assume their role, in harmony with the EU system. Already in France, followed by Belgium and the Netherlands, representatives of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and non believers, secular bearers of different cultures, have manifested in their diversity the vocation to establish a program of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, in partnership with prestigious universities such as Sciences Po, the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). This initiative led to the establishment of the Emouna association (Emouna, a word of Semitic origin that, similarly to the corresponding Amen and Amana, derives from the same root shared by different traditions, means faith, fidelity, spirituality), which is conceived as a means to seek new ideal structures or foundations on which a society can support itself, evoking a common spiritual source to inspire humanity.

In accordance with the aforementioned foreign experiences, the Luiss Institute for European Analysis and Policy (LEAP) has created an Observatory on Europe, Religions and Other Cultures (EURECA), approved in 2024 by the Academic Senate, with the aim of developing scientific research and teaching activities on political, economic-legal, institutional relations at the Italian and European level between society, religious confessions and other cultures, of promoting excellent mutual knowledge of the different religions and their intellectual and ritual traditions, of deepening the links between Italian and European culture with the different religions and with the humanistic and secular settings that permeate the modern society of the EU Member States. In this context, in 2024-2025 there began a highly open and high-level permanent training program called EMUNA ITALIA. It aims to attract people of different beliefs, professors and ministers of worship, as well as other subjects mainly dedicated to training (already in practice or in preparation), with adequate skills and interest in the training and research project in question. The cycle of seminars is entrusted to teachers of proven excellence and different cultural or religious approaches in the various disciplinary fields of reference: they aim to build a base of fundamental skills necessary for permanent training and in-depth analysis, for the exercise of responsibility in the field of higher education and training by the religious or cultural communities themselves, to allow for the cognitive enrichment of each participant from a point of view of different convictions and disciplines and to develop a network of empathic interaction, useful for interreligious and intercultural dialogue. The topics covered in 2025/2026 include, among others, knowledge of the most vital religions and cultures in the European Union, interreligious and intercultural dialogue, the relationship between religions, public authorities, law and economics, training and education, work, public finance, sustainability and debt relief in our countries, sectarianism, extremism and religious radicalization, different approaches to the great themes of life and death, the relationship between science and ethics in different cultures, and between different scientific truths, value premises, truths of faith, the human being and the environment, architecture and art, different interpretations of the same sacred texts, listening and managing emotions in community organization, professional ethics, negotiation and mediation, the place of religions in international relations.

Furthermore, the training and research activity carried out by Emuna Italia is also aimed at the presentation of individual and collective projects by the participants in the program, based on innovative and scientifically proven methods, on critical thinking, on team working, on the comparison with well-known interlocutors of different beliefs, on conversations with remarkable witnesses.

As regards the training program offered by Emuna Italia, the second cycle is divided into 16 seminar days, between October 2025 and June 2026 and ends with a party and a multicultural concert. In addition to seminar attendance, students who, in 2025/2026, are assumed to be around thirty years old, are invited to carry out individual and collective projects, which complete the training path and lead to the release of a certificate of attendance by LUISS, as happens in the rest of the European Emounas.

The Founders of Emuna Italia are Luiss Rector Emeritus Prof. Massimo Egidi, Jesuit Prof. and President of the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome Peter Dubovsky and Prof. Daniela Scialabba of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Vice President of COREIS and Imam of the al Wahid Mosque of Milan Yahya Pallavicini, General Secretary of the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy Dr. Abdellah Redouane, with his permanent delegate Imam Nader Akkad, Advisor for Religious Affairs and Fatwa of the Great Mosque of Rome and Director General of the Department of Islamic Studies (CUIRIF), Rabbi Emeritus of the Israelite Community of Florence Prof. Joseph Levi, Pastor Luca Negro, General Secretary of the Bible Society in Italy, Father Gheorghe Militaru, Vicar General of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy, Minister of Worship and Vice President of the Italian and European Buddhist Institute Soka Gakkai Dr. Anna Conti, President of the Maitreya Foundation of the Italian Buddhist Union Prof. Maria Angela Falà, Senior Fellow of LEAP, and Emuna President Prof. Fiorella Kostoris Padoa Schioppa.

The EURECA Observatory is directed by Prof. Valentina Meliciani (Dean LEAP), while the work of the training and research group promoted by EMUNA ITALIA is curated by a Scientific Committee composed of the Founders of EMUNA ITALIA and chaired by Prof. Fiorella Kostoris Padoa Schioppa.

In 2024-2025 EMUNA ITALIA had the opportunity to begin to enhance and communicate some of the results of the training in intercultural and interfaith dialogue through the dissemination in Italian and English of Briefs and Working Papers on the LEAP Luiss website. Communication will be strengthened in 2025-2026 through social media and the publication of articles and books, in particular by the approximately 70/80 speakers at the EMUNA ITALIA seminar days, in order to disseminate educational and scientific analyses to a wider Italian and foreign audience.

Closing speech by Fiorella Kostoris Padoa Schioppa for the 2024/2025 academic year of EMUNA Italia, Luiss – June 5, 2025

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