One of these years I will make it to the New York Encounter. The 2018 event will be held over the next two days and “strives to witness to the new life and knowledge generated by the faith,” following Pope Benedict’s claim that “the intelligence of faith has to become the intelligence of reality.”

I have been fortunate in recent years to take part in the annual Rimini Meeting where 800.000 people spend the week growing together in faith. The New York event is both smaller and shorter but the goal is the same, a gathering for friendship among people who wish to live fully, knowing that our life is found in Christ alone.

This brief video provides a reflective introduction to this week’s event titled “An Impossible Unity.” Pope Francis’ message to the 2018 meeting is at the bottom of this page.

In the end, the unity we long for seems impossible.
But what if it is possible? How can it happen?

“You know it well: you can’t manage a thing;
you’re tired; you can’t go on.
And all at once you meet the gaze of someone in the crowd
—a human gaze—
and it’s as if you had drawn near to a hidden divine presence.
And everything suddenly becomes simpler.”
–Andrei Tarkovsky

Message of Pope Francis to the 2018 New York Encounter: