The beautiful expiring, “beautiful hope”, is more than a ship. It has become a symbol, a collective odyssey that has been able to intertwine the language of adventure with that of the spirit, transforming the Mediterranean into a living laboratory of peace. For months he furrowed the waves, stopping in the ports of the different sides, welcoming young people and local communities, crossing language, traditions, different faiths. It was a journey that did not limit himself to a maritime peripr, but that took on the value of a secular and interreligious pilgrimage: a navigation of the soul, where each stopover meant meeting, listening, recognition.
Now, while performing the final stage, the last crossing that leads from Naples to Marseille, the whole experience is gathered in a synthesis. Not an epilogue, but a new threshold. Everything that has been lived in the previous seven chapters is brought on board as a living memory, to transform itself into concrete commitment and shared future. The decisive dynamics that emerged – the value of dialogue, the urgency of peace, the common responsibility in the custody of the earth and the peoples – They now intertwine in a single message, that the actors and partners of this adventure want to deliver to the Mediterranean and the world.
Each touched port was a piece of a mosaic. In Barcelona and Tétouan there has been the strength of the dialogue between cultures, remembering that the differences are not threats but wealth. In Palermo and Bizerta the reflection has moved to education and society, revealing how the future of peoples is played in the ability to offer young tools to grow free and responsible. In Valletta and Chania the protagonists were the women, custodians of resilience and courage, often silent but indispensable voices for building inclusive communities. In Nicosia and Jounieh, the attention turned to the dialogue between peoples and religions, in contexts marked by still open wounds, but also by extraordinary abilities of resistance and coexistence.
In Istanbul and Athens the central theme was the environment: the Mediterranean as a common house, fragile and precious, to defend from predatory selfishness and logic. In Durrës and Trieste there was talk of migrations, one of the great challenges of our time: no more anonymous masses but concrete faces, stories of men and women who ask to be recognized and welcomed with dignity. Finally Ravenna and Bari hosted the perhaps most symbolic chapter: the encounter between Christians of the East and Western, the awareness that the secular divisions can be overcome by a stronger fraternity of every fence.
These seven chapters now flow into the eighth, which is not a simple balance, but a song of hope. Naples and Marseille make places-like of this synthesis: two port cities, open by nature, a crossroads of peoples and cultures. Here the rumor that got up throughout the journey gets a choral. No longer only individual testimonies, but a common proclamation: peace is not a utopia, it is a path that requires courage, perseverance, creativity.
To accompany this itinerary, the prayer that in Bari, at the end of the seventh chapter, Archbishop Giuseppe Satriano has delivered as a spiritual testament of the journey: «Frères et Sœurs, Chers Jeunes, Chers Amis de Différes Nations et Traditions religieuses, ce soir nous noure retuvons autur du don précieux de la prière … Aujourd’hui plus que jamais, nous avons drums d’élever ensemble La Voix Vers Le Ciel ». It is not a simple invocation, but the gesture of those who recognize that peace does not arise only from the hands of men, but blooms where responsibility opens to the gift, and where diversity transfigures into communion. The words of prayer have highlighted the contradictions of our time: wars that multiply, trampled rights, sea transformed into a cemetery of hopes, indifference that weighs like a boulder. But at the same time they indicated a horizon: peace as a fragile gift, which needs courageous hearts ready to keep it. It is not a private asset, nor a particular interest: it is a common assets that asks for custodians in every generation.
The Odyssey of the beautiful expoir does not close with a landing. Each landing was a departure. So even the final stage does not represent a conclusion, but the beginning of a new journey. The documents, documents, the reflections collected during the trip will be delivered as a basis for a “White Pace Paper”, a heritage of proposals and alliances that can feed cooperation networks between universities, associations, churches, civil communities and institutions. Not a memory to be archived, but a seed to sprout. The Mediterranean, which has always been the cradle of civilization and the theater of conflicts, is once again shown as a mirror of our humanity. Its waters do not separate, but combine. His shores, albeit different, look each other in the eyes as sisters. The port cities that have welcomed the beautiful expiring remind everyone that true security does not arise from walls or armed defenses, but from the ability to get to know each other, esteem, collaborate.
For this reason, the last crossing takes on the traits of a spiritual parable: it is not only the route between two cities, but the symbol of an inner path, which asks each of us to choose between two opposite logic. On the one hand, the defense of particular interests, the closure, the suspicion. On the other, the culture of the encounter, of mutual knowledge, of trust. The beautiful expiring, with its sailing tense in the wind, becomes the image of this last choice: fragile but strong, vulnerable but capable of resisting, just like peace.
In the end, what remains is not the chronicle of an itinerary, but the echo of an invitation: raise the voice to the sky together, with the courage of those who do not give up, with the trust of those who know that every authentic encounter leaves indelible traces. The Mediterranean, once again, proves to be not as a border, but as a womb. Not as a trench, but as a cradle. Not as a place of conflict, but as a frontier of hope.
Photo © Nice Espoir
