The story of the Med25 Bel Espoir’s journey around the Mediterranean between spring and autumn 2025. Among the stories shared is that of Carlos Palma, the founder of Living Peace, and Ikram, an ambassador for peace in Algeria.

In these difficult times, a story of hope, dialogue, and encounter set sail on the Mediterranean. The sea connecting Africa and Europe has readily become a wall because of the fragility, poverty, and desperation of those who cross it. A horizontal wall, made of water, but a wall nonetheless. Whereas the Mediterranean could – and should – be a great bridge.

The story of the Med25 Bel Espoir is one of hope, of beauty, of fraternity and unity, of diverse perspectives in dialogue with each other. It is the story of a boat: 29 metres long, this magnificent three-masted schooner from the forties is a source of joy, and truly unique because it is also, crucially, a school. An invaluable school for peace!

Ports, Cities, Young People, and Many Highly Debated Topics

The Bel Espoir’s journey lasted eight months: from March to October 2025. For 240 days of this journey, the boat for peace hosted 200 young people from all over the world, docking at thirty ports across the Mediterranean, including Barcelona, Palermo, Valletta, Nicosia, Istanbul, Durrës, Ravenna, Naples, and Marseilles. The ship connected five shores of an ocean that can be – and has been – divisive, but which also has the power to bring people together. The Mediterranean must be experienced, conceived, transformed, and defended as such.

The Med25 Bel Espoir set off from Barcelona, braving the waves to advocate against war. Various topics were discussed on board, under the following themes: ‘Cultural Dialogue’, ‘Education and Society’, ‘Women of the Mediterranean’, ‘Religions in Dialogue’, ‘The Environment and Growth’, ‘The Challenges of Migration’, ‘Eastern and Western Christianity’, and ‘Constructing Peace’.

Between stops the young people came ashore for meetings and debates, getting the opportunity to discover different experiences and stories, enrich themselves, and learn the value of diversity and of the unique nuances that make us human.

A Video Featuring the Pope Celebrating the Beauty of the Bel Espoir

Young ambassadors for peace from Living Peace and the Focolare Movement also embarked on the Bel Espoir journey. Over the course of the voyage, eight groups of young people took turns: twenty-five at a time, all of different nationalities, languages, ethnicities, cultures, and religions – all committed to peace.

Among those who boarded the Bel Espoir were Bertha, from Lebanon, whose story we told in an earlier article, and Majdi, from Palestine, who recently shared their experience in an interview.

You can catch a glimpse into the Med25 Bel Espoir’s journey in the initiative’s video – available here.

The video tells the beautiful story in just a handful of enchanting, densely packed, and emotional minutes. Pope Leo XIV’s speech at the Jubilee of the Eastern Churches plays over the images of the Bel Espoir at sea. His are words of peace: ‘War is never inevitable,’ he states. ‘The peoples of our world desire peace … Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate!’

Pope Leo climbed aboard the Espoir ship on 17 October at the port of Ostia, offering words of peace and, in doing so, bestowing this extraordinary story with an even greater honour.

Carlos Palma’s Speech on the Bel Espoir

In June Carlos Palma, the founder of Living Peace, also boarded the Bel Espoir. After having seen the video a few days prior, ‘with eyes full of tears at the impact of what they had experienced together,’ he ‘felt the need to share what those images had sparked’ in him.

‘Like all those young people from the Mediterranean,’ Carlos explained, ‘I had a unique and transformative experience, one which brought us together in our hearts and souls.’ He continued, ‘Beyond age, religion, or culture, we have realised that we are all brothers and sisters and – now, with a fresh perspective – we have recognised the immense value that each person carries in their heart. We feel called to be a source of peace and fraternity in the Mediterranean and wherever God leads us.’

Carlos Palma then added, ‘We have been protagonists of a completely new experience – an extraordinarily beautiful and powerful one. Now that we are geographically distant, I feel that our daily efforts, both big and small, will continue our pilgrimage of hope, together, as we become peacemakers in many people’s hearts.’

‘We probably will not be the ones to find a diplomatic solution capable of bringing an end to all wars and conflicts,’ Carlos Palma concluded, ‘but we can help generate the kind of inner peace that can transform everything around it. And this is precisely what our Charisma, as well as Living Peace, invites us to experience: to continue to be instruments of peace for our Mediterranean and for the world.’

Carlos Palma

Ikram Also Shares Her Experience on the Bel Espoir

Ikram, a young ambassador for peace in Algeria, also came aboard the Med25 Bel Espoir. Like Bertha, Majdi, and Carlos Palma, she wanted to share some of her thoughts on this extraordinary and deeply meaningful adventure: ‘I, too, feel immense gratitude for the adventure we had together on the Med25. I had the privilege of taking part in the second leg on board the Bel Espoir, between Palermo and Bizerte,’ she explained, ‘when the theme was “Education and Society”.’

‘It was a profoundly spiritual and human experience,’ Ikram continued. ‘We shared so much more than a simple ocean voyage on board: it was a real journey of inner transformation. Each person, with their own story, culture, and faith, contributed to creating an atmosphere of trust, listening, and unity. I discovered how coming together, entering into dialogue with one another, and simply living side by side can truly become a school of peace.’

‘A few months later I had the honour of taking part in the pilot session,’ Ikram added, ‘two days before the Armada for Peace. It was a brief but intense period of preparation, marked by reflection and a profound sense of joy. We could already feel that something bigger than ourselves was being born: Mediterranean fraternity, woven from diverse faces and cultures, as well as shared hopes.’

Ikram also told us about the joy of welcoming ‘the Bel Espoir for its eighth and final leg. We went out in small boats to meet it and sail together for the last time. That moment was a powerful symbol for me: the end of a journey, but also the start of a mission, the call to continue – each in their own way – to be bringers of peace and fraternity wherever life takes us.’

Ikram concludes with what she learnt from her adventure aboard the Bel Espoir: ‘I carry in my heart a deep conviction from these two experiences: peace is not born from great speeches, but from the encounters we have, from genuine sharing, and from the bonds of trust that we build between us. Still today I feel that Med25 continues to live within us: in our daily choices, in the way we welcome others, and in our desire to make the Mediterranean a space of true peace and universal fraternity.’

Article translated into English by Becca Webley