Pope: Only a unified world religion can only bring peace
Pastor Dale Morgan
Pope: Only a unified religion can only bring peace*
Vatican City (AsiaNewsWires) – A One World Unified Religion “cannot be
anything but a herald of peace” and no one may use it as a reason for
violence towards other human beings. The statements of John Paul II,
which made famous an inter-faith prayer meeting for peace in Assisi in
1986, were echoed today by Benedict XVI in a message to mark 20 years
since that event.
Throughout these years, said the pope, the “dream of peace” hoped for at
the end of the Cold War did not come about. “If anything, the third
millennium started with scenarios of terrorism and violence that do not
seem about to go away. Further, the reality that armed conflicts are
today unfolding especially against a background of ongoing geo-political
tensions in many regions, can give the impression that not only cultural
differences but also religious differences may constitute a motive for
instability or threats to peace prospects.”
In this context, said Benedict XVI, “the initiative promoted 20 years
ago to date by John Paul II takes on the mark of a timely prophecy”.
“Despite the differences characterizing the various religious journeys,
the recognition of the existence of a god, that all mankind can grasp
first of all from experiencing creation can only prompt the religious to
view all human beings as brothers. Hence, it is not legitimate for
anyone to use the motive of religious differences as a presupposition or
pretext for a warlike attitude towards other human beings.” The very
wars of religion “cannot be attributed to religion as much, but to
cultural limits with which it was lived and developed over time.”
The meeting in Assisi was marked by the value of prayer in
peace-building. “Peace is a value in which many parts merge. To build
it, cultural, political and economical channels are certainly important.
In the first place, however, peace must be built in people’s hearts.
Here in fact, feelings develop that could fuel peace or, on the
contrary, threaten, weaken or suffocate it.” The “value of prayer in
peace-building was highlighted by representatives of different world
religions and traditions,” recalled the pope. “This did not happen
across long distances but in the context of a meeting.” Already in 1986,
continued Benedict XVI, attention was drawn to the fact that “the
inter-faith prayer meeting should not lend itself to syncretistic
interpretations, founded on a relativistic concept.”
Pope Ratzinger did not mention them but at the time, and even later,
there were controversies about this. It was probably these controversies
that prompted the pope to emphasize, when greeting people attending
events in Assisi organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio, “the duty”
even now to “avoid inopportune confusions. This is why even when people
come together to pray for peace, prayer should unfold according to the
distinct journeys that belong to each religion. This was the choice of
1986 and it was a decision that cannot but remain valid still today. The
convergence of what is different should not give the impression of
ceding to that relativism that denies the very meaning of truth and the
possibility of drawing from it.”
Benedict XVI drew attention to St Francis, for the third time within a
few days. “The witness he gave in his time,” he wrote, “makes him a
natural point of reference for all those who today also cultivate the
ideal of peace, of respect for nature, of dialogue between people and a
unity between all religions and cultures. All the same, it is important
to recall, if one does not want to betray his message, the keys to
understand the brotherhood to which all men are called, and to which
even inanimate creatures – from ‘brother sun’ to ‘sister moon’ –
participate in some way.”