Laurent Basanese
Born in Lyon (France), Laurent Basanese is Head of Office at the Holy See’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, a position to which he was appointed by Pope Leo XIV in 2025, and Secretary of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims. He is also professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he teaches Systems of Thought, Arabic, Oriental and Islamic Civilizations, and Muslim-Christian Dialogue.
Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1997, he holds a doctorate in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI, Rome) and a doctorate in Religious Sciences and Systems of Thought from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, Sorbonne University, Paris). He founded and directed the Gregorian Centre for Interreligious Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University from 2015 to 2021, and relaunched the series Interreligious and Intercultural Investigations, which he directed from 2018 to 2021.
Co-founder and co-leader of the Pluriel research group in Rome (since 2019), in cooperation with the Pontifical Gregorian University and PISAI, he was also a member of the Coordinating and Scientific Committee of Pluriel from 2017 to 2024. He serves on the Board of Directors of KAICIID (King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, since 2024) and is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Class of World Religions (since 2018).
Resources of this researcher
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publication
Fratelli tutti: The Dream of God for a More Human World
- Laurent Basanese
One of the key words in Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli tutti on fraternity and social friendship is « dream ». The Pope opens with an invitation, « Let us dream, then, as a single human fa...
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publication
The document on human fraternity: an interdisciplinary reflection
- Diego Sarrió Cucarella
- Laurent Basanese
The volume, published in the series “Interreligious and Intercultural Investigations” (No. 14), brings together contributions from ten international scholars on the Document on Human Fr...
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Religioni in Asia. Uno sguardo contestuale
- Laurent Basanese
This volume gathers the contributions from the forums organised by the Gregorian Centre for Interreligious Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University on the religions of Asia, considered in the...
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videos
Congress “Islam and Belonging”: synthesis by the Jesuit theologian Laurent Basanèse
- Laurent Basanese
Synthesis of the second International Congrès of PLURIEL in Rome, by Laurent BASANÈSE, director of the Gregorian Center for Inter-religious Studies
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When Religions Contribute to Education for a more Fraternal Humanity
- Laurent Basanese
What resources are religions endowed with to educate for a more fraternal humanity? To respond to this question, a study day was organised on February 24th 2020 at the Pontifical Gregorian Universi...
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Islam and Belonging. Proceedings of the PLURIEL 2nd International Congress
- Michel Younès
- Anna Hager
- Laurent Basanese
- Diego Sarrió Cucarella
After its first international congress in Lyon from 6 to 9 September 2016 on the theme “Islam in the Plural: Faith, Thought, Society”[1], the current study brings together the proceedin...
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Interreligious and Intercultural Investigations – N°10 – The challenge of religions
- Laurent Basanese
The publication of the Series Interreligious and Intercultural Investigations has been restarted. “The Series Interreligious and Intercultural Investigations” started in 1999. Its purpo...
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videos
The document on human fraternity: a new horizon for Islamic-Christian dialogue? (Italian)
- Adnane Mokrani
- Laurent Basanese
- Valentino Cottini
Lecturers : Adnane Mokrani, P. Laurent Basanese S.J. Moderator: Valentino Cottini Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, April 8th, 2019 This conference marks the launch of the research grou...
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videos
Retrospective: Congress 2018 “Islam and Belonging”
- Laurent Basanese
Retrospective on the Second International Congress of PLURIEL that has been held at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Roma, in June 2018, on the theme “Islam and Belonging”. Excerp...
Resources related to
Muslim-Christian Dialogue
article
Kenneth Cragg and the Event of the Qur’an
- Timo Güzelmansur
Article by Timo Güzelmansur published under the title Kenneth Cragg und das Ereignis des Koran on the theological portal feinschwarz.net (12 June 2026, open access). Timo Güzelmansur presents the A...
article
Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas and the Pluriel working group on AI-assisted interreligious dialogue
- Wael Saleh
Text by Wael Saleh, researcher at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and member of the Pluriel coordination committee. The simultaneous appearance of Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Human...
publication
The Recognition of a Hummingbird. Essays on Interreligious Dialogue and Missionary Work (2007-2025)
- Rémi Caucanas
Published in May 2026 by PISAI (Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome), this collection brings together the essays of Rémi Caucanas on interreligious dialogue and missionary wor...
videos
From Lavigerie to PISAI: The Institutional History of the Missionaries of Africa’s Engagement with Islam
Delivered on 21 May 2026 at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome, this lecture opens the series of conferences marking the institute's centenary (1926-2026). Fr. ...
videos
Interreligious Dialogue and Ethnic Nationalisms in the Balkans
At the invitation of PISAI (Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome) and Georgetown University, Ahmet Alibašić, professor of Islamic civilization at the Faculty of Islamic Studies...
publication
For a Christian Theology of Religions
- Michel Younès
Faced with contemporary religious diversity, how can Christian theology make sense of the place that other religions occupy in God’s design? Michel Younès examines the three traditional ̶...
publication
Intercultural Theology
- Jean Patrick Nkolo Fanga
Because every theology is culturally situated, Christian theology is inevitably multicultural. Yet one step remains to be taken: to become intercultural. Crossing languages, contexts, origins, ages...
article
Bells and Muezzin in Harmony: Dialogue with Islam as a Spiritual Responsibility
- Timo Güzelmansur
Article by Timo Güzelmansur published under the title Glocken und Muezzin im Einklang. Der Dialog mit dem Islam als geistliche Verantwortung in Herder Korrespondenz (special issue devoted to Pope L...