Portraits in Faith held a joint press conference at the Vatican on October 21, 2025 with the Vatican Dicastery of Communication as part of the Jubilee “Open Doors” program. We were very blessed to have the participation and opening remarks of His Eminence Cardinal George Koovakad, the Prefect of the Dicastery of Inter-Religious Dialogue. Cardinal Koovakad spoke beautifully about the humanity expressed in each of our portraits. We were also very grateful for the participation and remarks by Dr. Paolo Ruffini, the Prefect for the Dicastery of Communication.

The program consisted of Daniel K. Epstein sharing the story of his journey to create Portraits in Faith and how growing up Jewish in the Southern USA he felt like the other but also felt called to bring people together. Gina Alicea, curator of the Portraits in Faith: Seeing the Other exhibition shared how she came to create the exhibition and the key questions we use to challenge people’s assumption about the “other.”

We were also very grateful to have in attendance and who spoke Imam Dr. Nader Akkad, Imam of the Grand Mosque in Rome.

The press conference continued with remarks by two participants in the Rome Portraits in Faith project on what it meant to participate, reflecting back on that experience 20 years ago: Abdellah Redouane, Ph.D., Secretary General of the Islamic Cultural Society of Italy, and Sister Bernadette Reis, Daughters of St. Paul.

Lia Beltrami, Emotions To Generate Change, brought the press conference to conclusion by sharing the power of Portraits in Faith to bring together us as brothers and sisters, even her dear departed friend and peacemaker, Sheikh Abdul Azizz Bukhari from Jerusalem who she was so grateful to see in the project.

Portraits in Faith Foundation wants to deeply thank Sister Bernadette Reis, Daughters of St. Paul, for conceiving of this partnership and to Lia Beltrami, Emotions To Generate Change, for bringing the idea to life. We are eager to see how Portraits in Faith can contribute to the worldwide work of the Dicastery for Inter-Religious Dialogue going forward.

Photo credit: Sebastiano Rossitto