Simposio in onore di Samir Khalil Samir

On Friday 25 May 2018, the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome organized a symposium to celebrate the 80th birthday of the well-known Jesuit scholar Father Samir Khalil Samir. The symposium, which lasted the whole day and was entitled “Arab Christian Heritage and Christian-Muslim Dialogue”, was a meeting place for many academic personalities who wanted to pay tribute to the multifaceted personality of Father Samir, who for some time also taught at PISAI and who contributed to the bibliography on Christian-Muslim dialogue published in the first issues of Islamochristiana. The PISAI also actively participated in the symposium: the rector, Father Valentino Cottini, presided over a session, while two of our alumni - Father Laurent Basanese, S.J. and Prof. Mark Swanson - and our invited researcher Prof. Martino Diez gave papers. The symposium ended with a laudatio of Father Samir by Prof. Adel Sidarus (who has also taught at PISAI) and a presentation by Father Edward G. Farrugia of the large volume (800 pages!) edited by Željko Paša, S.J., Between the Cross and the Crescent. Studies in Honor of Samir Khalil Samir, S.J. on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday. Among the congratulatory letters arrived, that of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was read by H.E. Gabriele Caccia, alumnus PISAI, former Nuncio in Lebanon and now Nuncio in the Philippines. Congratulations to Father Samir from everyone at PISAI!