Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche issued the following open letter, calling for representatives of all religions and cultures around the world to start a dialogue to solve the strategic crises facing Mankind, inspired by Nicolaus of Cusa’s “coincidence of opposites” method of thinking, as recently emphasized by Pope Leo XIV in his Oct. 25 Jubilee Audience sermon. A packet of relevant documentary materials can be found on the Schiller Institute site.
November 5, 2025
Dear Friend:
In today’s world, which is challenged by the dangers of wars, geopolitical tensions, mass starvation, poverty and cultural crisis, one of the most important and uplifting interventions came from Pope Leo XIV in his Jubilee Audience on October 25, 2025 in St. Peter’s Square in front of tens of thousands of pilgrims. The Holy Father introduced Nicolaus of Cusa, the Cardinal and outstanding thinker of the 15th century, in his sermon as someone whose method of thinking enables man to see the hope of a better future and a way to find solutions to even the most difficult of problems.
The Pope’s extended reference to Nicolaus of Cusa and this conception of the “coincidentia oppositorum,” the coincidence of opposites, is of the highest strategic importance, because it provides the key to always find a solution to any problem on a higher level than that on which the problem arose. Cusa developed in his “Docta Ignorantia” and other writings the argument that Man, as the “imago viva dei,” the living image of God, can always use his creative powers ("vis creativa") to find the higher “One” which is of a higher power and magnitude than the “Many.” This way of thinking enables the human mind to think the one humanity first, before one thinks of the diversity, and in this way overcome otherwise seemingly unsolvable conflicts.
