Med 25 Bel Espoir

The School of Peace in the Mediterranean

In the spirit of the Mediterranean Meetings initiated in Bari in 2020, the Beautiful Hope It set sail on March 1st, 2025 for an eight-month journey with stops in about thirty ports around the Mediterranean. Each stage of the journey welcomed a new group of 25 young people representing various nationalities, cultures, and religions.

8 sessions
from March to October 2025

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Barcelona Tetouan

1 – 15 March 2025
Dialogue of cultures

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Palermo Bizerte

March 29 – April 13, 2025
Education and society

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Valletta Chania

April 26 – May 11, 2025
Women in the Mediterranean

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Nicosia Jounieh

June 6 – June 21, 2025 The peoples in…

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Istanbul Athens

July 5 – July 20, 2025
Environment and development

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Durres Trieste

August 4 – August 17, 2025
Migration challenges

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Ravenna Bari

August 30 – September 14, 2025
Eastern and Western Christianity

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Naples Marseille

October 11 – 26, 2025
Building peace

media archive

Find the articles, photos and videos published during the Med 25 odyssey Bel Espoir.

Re-live the Med 25 odyssey Beautiful Hope

«We wanted to open this path in the sea as a sign of hope»

Greeting words from Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille, upon the arrival of Bel Espoir in Marseille last October 25th. Two years ago, on the morning of September 23, 2023, just behind me, in the auditorium of the Palais du Pharo, we had the…

“We all live together in this world, and we all have a common responsibility.”

Address by the Holy Father Leo XIV on the deck of the Bel Espoir to the young people of session 8 and the crew of the AJD, on October 17, in Ostia, in the presence of Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline and the coordinator of the Mediterranean meetings, Alexis Leproux. "Thank you very much, Your…

Religious experience is the principle and strength of the relationship.

Speech by Professor Giuseppina De Simone at the conference at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of Southern Italy in Naples on October 13th, in the presence of young people from the 8th session who, passing through Ostia, the port near Rome, will reach Marseille on…

"I want this boat to move again"

  Camille, a young participant in Session 7 between Ravenna and Bari, wrote a poem about her experience. I want this boat to move again I want to feel the rolling of its waves beneath my feet, of its salty wind in…

"We need to raise our voices to heaven together."

In Bari, upon the arrival of the young people of Session 7, Giuseppe Satriano, Archbishop of Bari-Bitonto, introduced the group to a moment of ecumenical prayer. “Brothers and sisters, dear young people, dear friends from different nations and religious traditions, this evening we meet…

“Continue to be signs of hope!”

On Friday, September 5, Pope Leo XIV delivered a speech on peacebuilding at the meeting of the Mediterranean Youth Council, based in Florence. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. May peace…

“This is the way I believe the world can be healed”

Testimony of Malkon, a young Palestinian who participated in the session between Istanbul and Athens. He shares his convictions and his journey with us during the Peace Ceremony held in Athens on July 18. From the Ashes of Genocides to the light of…

Med 25 sponsorships
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Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline
Archbishop of Marseilles

"The ship that we are going to push on the waves, a small nutshell on the waves of the storms and the tears of our sea and our world, is intended as an ark of hope of which you, the young people who will embark at each stage of this great odyssey, will become the navigators. And I am sure that the compass of this navigation will help you find the right path and keep the right course throughout your lives.

Let us learn hope. Let us live in brotherhood. Let us cultivate friendship and trust. Let us bear witness to the love with which God loves the world, he who wishes to gather his scattered children into unity. Then our sea will be able to become more and more what it has always been intended to be: a link, a road and a door between peoples and civilizations."

Asma Lamrabet

Asma Lamrabet
Biologist in Rabat, essayist

"Thank you to the organizers and young people from all these countries and cultures for being part of this beautiful ship of the school for peace. Thank you for offering us this magnificent message of hope in the midst of this global chaos that we are all experiencing today!

Through your exchanges, I am sure that you have understood that it is your common humanity that counts and that your cultural, religious or other differences are an inestimable enrichment to your own humanity.

I am honored and delighted to be part - even if from afar - of this magnificent journey on this beautiful Mediterranean Sea, cradle of so many civilizations and intercultural exchanges.

Good luck and peace be with you all.

Barbara Cassin

Barbara Cassin
Philologist, philosopher, member of the French Academy

"It is with joy that I support the Bel Espoir, its passengers, and the project of the Meetings for Peace around the Mediterranean.

This adventure at sea joins the adventure in words that we are leading to create a dictionary of the untranslatable of the three monotheisms. We start from the texts in languages, Torah, Bible, Koran, to understand and compare some key words or phrases around which these books are wrapped, thus exploring symptoms of difference and, far from any fundamentalism, complicating the universal."

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Bishop Jacques Mourad
Syriac Catholic Bishop of Homs

"The MED path that began a few years ago seeks to build a new world where Peace dominates through the effort of young people who come together from all countries to live together and get to know each other, which is the foundation of building Peace.

Peace education in the conditions of countries of different faiths and ethnicities like ours is necessary at this time when we are going through a great radical change in our dictatorship system of government.

Knowledge of oneself and of others, knowledge of history is very important for forgiveness and reconciliation.

I pray to the Lord that these symbolic meetings will create important bonds to build a world of peace in the Mediterranean basin. I pray for the Church, which will take responsibility for the commitment to create a path of hope in a world that lives in total darkness."

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Cecile Renouard
President of the Transition Campus, professor of philosophy, member of the Catholic congregation of the Religious of the Assumption

 

"This year we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the publication by Pope Francis of the encyclical Laudato si'. For the safeguarding of our common home. More than ever, in a context of war and withdrawal into identity, of perversion of language and refusal to confront the realities of the ecological and social emergency, we need to hear the call to listen to "the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor."

The Pope provides criteria for discernment and action: redefining progress, recognizing the ecological debt of the richest people and regions to the most vulnerable, seeking to articulate ecological, social, economic, cultural, and civic issues (which is what the notion of integral ecology proposes), cultivating dialogue, and promoting simplicity, friendship, and happy sobriety.

Congratulations to all those who live and bring to life the Med 25 experience, in the service of the deployment of capacities and skills for peace, development, universal brotherhood and the care of the living!"

The festival of marseille

On October 25, 2025, after eight months of sailing in the Mediterranean, the Beautiful Hope will end its odyssey in Marseille! To welcome it, a festival open to the general public is organized. 

Round tables, open stage, Mediterranean dances, photo exhibition, testimonies, participatory workshops, peace parade: meet at the Mucem auditorium (round tables), in the main hall (workshop forum), on the esplanade (stage) or other locations (Saint Laurent church, visit to places of worship, etc.) from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.