Pope to travel to Assisi for annual peace prayer

VATICAN CITY – The world’s top Christian leaders — Pope Francis, the archbishop of Canterbury and the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians — will come together later this month to pray for peace alongside Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist representatives.

The Vatican released the details of the Sept. 20 prayer day in the hilltop town of Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis of Assisi, the peace-loving namesake of the pope.

Francis has followed in the footsteps of his two predecessors in travelling to Assisi for the prayer event, which is organized each year by the Catholic charity Sant’Egidio alongside Assisi’s Franciscan friars.

The program calls for the religious leaders to have lunch together along with some victims of war, to pray separately and to sign a joint appeal for peace.