The purpose of the dialogue with people of no religious conviction is that of meeting each other and collaborate to bring unity within the human family.

Since the beginning, in Trent, around the first group, were people of different social conditions and cultures, and also people without any religious belief. They were all attracted by the communion of goods practised by the members of the Movement and by the serious commitment to help those in need.

It is especially after the eighties, with the spreading of the Movement, that the relationships with people without religious belief have grown so remarkably, that they became a "dialogue" with its own characteristic. At the beginning, it is a vast group made up of mainly of acquaintances of members of the Movement: relatives, friends, colleagues, neighbours, classmates, etc., all attracted by the message of unity and with the desire to contribute in bringing unity in their own environments.

In 1992 the first international meeting for the "dialogue with people of no religious convictions" was held at the Mariapolis Centre in Castelgandolfo, Rome (Italy). Many participants shared experiences of the dialogue put into practice.

In the following years other such meetings were held in Vienna (Austria) with participants from the East European countries, and at Loppiano, Florence (Italy) and this dialogue became deeper.

The 2nd international meeting held at Castelgandolfo in 1994 was attended by people from all the European countries and some from the other continents. It was an occasion of precious enrichment for the experience of unity.

In 1997, the 3rd international meeting at Castelgandolfo. The main theme was the meaning of love as the bases of dialogue, of mutual respect wherein everyone has something to share and to receive. Chiara Lubich, in her message to the participants encouraged a further development of this relationship: "Who could imagine - she said - a society without values such as solidarity, peace and unity; but also human rights, justice, freedom and the safeguard of life? All these are ever essential values which must constantly be fostered among the people of our time, values that must be given ever new vigour with new motivations. This is what we want to do all together".

From the experience of these years some points stand out, characteristic of this dialogue: