ROME (LifeSiteNews) — The Diocese of Rome announced on Thursday that it has organized a Christian-Muslim dialogue event hosted at the Great Mosque of Rome next week.

In its April 30 announcement, the diocese announced that next on Thursday, May 7, it will send representatives to speak at the interfaith “Christians and Muslims in Dialogue at the Great Mosque” meeting organized by both the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy and the Diocese of Rome. In its announcement, the diocese stressed that this “interfaith encounter” will follow the examples of Pope Leo – the bishop of Rome – his predecessor Pope Francis, as well as the Second Vatican Council’s Nostra Aetate, the declaration on the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions.

The diocesan representatives who will be speaking at the meeting include Monsignor Marco Valenti, auxiliary bishop of the Northern Sector; Monsignor Marco Gnavi, head of the Office for Ecumenism, Interreligious Dialogue, and New Religious Movements; Dr. Abdellah Redouane, secretary general of the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy; and Professor Wasim Salman, the dean of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI).

In addition to sending speakers to the meeting, the diocese will present “Fact Sheets on Islam,” promoted by the Italian Episcopal Conference and the PISAI and jointly drafted by a mixed Christian-Muslim commission and will receive a tour of the Great Mosque, the largest mosque in Western Europe, by Imam Nader Akkad.

It is unknown at the time of writing what information is included in these “fact sheets” and if they refute Islam as a false religion or merely speak about fostering unity with the Muslims without calling them to conversion.

Monsignor Gnavi highlighted that this interfaith meeting is in continuity with Pope Leo and Pope Francis’ interfaith efforts and with Nostra Aetate.

“We are the Pope’s diocese, and our bishop, Leone, has always clearly emphasized the value of dialogue and interfaith encounter, both from the start of his tenure and on many other occasions,” Gnavi said.

“He has made pilgrimages to Turkey, Lebanon, and African countries,” he added, “charting the path of dialogue and interfaith encounter in the spirit of Nostra Aetate and in continuity with Pope Francis and the vision conveyed by the apostolic exhortation Fratelli Tutti.”

In the decades since its promulgation, Nostra Aetate has been criticized for fostering a false ecumenical attitude, since it can be interpreted as not drawing non-Christians to convert to Christ and His Church but instead confirming those who belong to false religions in their beliefs.

READ: Vatican honors Hinduism, Islam with dance celebration on anniversary of Nostra Aetate

The document contains ambiguous language, such as the Church “esteeming” non-Christian religions, and says the Church “exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions … they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.”

Nostra Aetate, or at least its common interpretation, has led to decades of interfaith events with Muslims and other false religions, as well as Pope Francis’ controversial 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti, a key reference text for ecumenical endeavors since its promulgation. That text touts a form of brotherhood without God and “religious indifferentism,” leading Church historian Roberto de Mattei to warn that when “fraternity” is divorced from Christian charity, “far from constituting an element of cohesion in society,” it “becomes the source of its disintegration.”

Pope Leo has continued this trend, visiting the Blue Mosque during his trip to Istanbul in the fall as an ecumenical gesture, though declining to pray there, saying he prefers to pray in a Catholic church before the Blessed Sacrament. During his recent trip to Africa, however, while visiting the Mosque of Algiers in Algeria, the pontiff engaged in silent prayer with the imam and called the mosque “a place proper to God.”

READ: Pope Leo XIV calls Algiers mosque ‘space proper to God,’ makes silent prayer with imam

Monsignor Gnavi also noted that Cardinal Baldo Reina, the diocese’s vicar, last year visited the Great Mosque and “briefly attended the prayer” and “subsequently met with all the leaders, imams, and representatives.”

“Just as then, today too a fraternal encounter must expand the space of peace, in a world burning with conflicts, tensions, and violence,” the priest said.

The meeting announcement has received considerable backlash from Catholics. One X user, Depositum Fidei, questioned whether the Church is trying to convert people to Catholicism or Islam.

Why is there a mosque in Rome…. Are we converting people to Catholicism or Islam….? I’m confused … because church teaching for 1960 years give or take; was always

There’s Truth and there’s error.

There ONE church not splinters of the church found else where….

Why are they…

— Depositum Fidei (@bp061122) April 30, 2026