As one in hope

Sydney
10 February 2002

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As one in hope

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As one in hope

Pope John Paul II gathers with world religious leaders around an olive tree, a symbol of peace, during their meeting in Assisi. Photo from Reuters

Violence and terrorism are incompatible with the faith and belief of the world's religions, religious leaders said during their meeting with the Pope in Assisi on January 24.
Pope John Paul II said that since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington religious leaders have wanted to do their part to fend off "the dark clouds of terrorism, hatred (and) armed conflict".
He said the daylong inter-religious pilgrimage to the birthplace of St Francis of Assisi marked "another milestone on the path of building a civilisation of peace and love".
The Pope said he and the other religious leaders appealed to all people of good will, forcefully rejecting "the temptation to resolve the serious problems of humanity with the use of weapons and violence".
The Assisi gathering brought together Christians from 16 churches and communities, 30 Muslim clerics from 18 nations, 10 rabbis and representatives of Buddhism, Tenrikyo, Shintoism, Jainism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Confucianism and traditional African religions.
The leaders travelled with the Pope by train to Assisi, reflected on peace together, prayed for peace separately using their own rites, then gathered together again to make a common commitment to promoting peace and teaching their faithful that true religion cannot be used to promote violence or terrorism.
During the afternoon service, 10 of the leaders read statements of commitment - in 10 different languages - they all promised to fulfil to help bring peace to the world.
The Rev Konrad Raiser, secretary-general of the World Council of Churches, read the first pledge in German, "proclaiming our firm commitment that violence and terrorism are incompatible with the authentic spirit of religion and, as we condemn every recourse to violence and war in the name of God or religion, we commit ourselves to doing everything possible to eliminate the root causes of terrorism".
The leaders also promised to educate their faithful to respect others, to foster dialogue, to defend each person's right to live a decent life, to value differences, to be voices for the poor and defenceless and to promote friendship among peoples.
Orthodox Bishop Vasilios of Trimithus, on the divided island of Crete, read another pledge: "We commit ourselves to forgiving one another for past and present errors and prejudices ... and to learn from the past that peace without justice is no true peace."
Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the world's Orth-odox and one of three patriarchs participating in the meeting, told the gathering: "Following horrendous holocausts and the slaughter of so many innocent victims, it is our duty to acknowledge the spiritual conditions for peace on earth, and not merely economic or other factors.
"These conditions include righteousness and respect for the sacredness of the human person, for one's neighbour and for his freedom and dignity.
"We must repent and turn back to God in full awareness of his holy will and in obedience to it. Only then will God hear our prayers and grant us and all mankind true peace on earth," he said.
Chief Amadou Gasseto, high priest of Avelekete Voodoo (a traditional African religion) in Benin, echoed the patriarch's point about personal behaviour and its role in creating peace or conflict.
"We must begin by achieving mastery over ourselves so as not to speak words which lead to feelings of opposition, exclusion or violence," he said.
Rabbi Israel Singer, who is secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress, followed little of his prepared text, instead telling Pope John Paul: "Only you can make this happen." And he told the other leaders that only by fostering commitments to peace among their faithful can religions turn their potential for peacemaking into a concrete reality.
"You should tell your people and we should tell ours, all of us - all of us - to question whether land or places are more important than people's lives and, until we learn to do that, there will be no peace," he said.
History, Rabbi Singer said, showed that, despite beautiful religious exhortations to be a force of peace, "the reality has been that, in practice, religions have served to foment scores of horrendous and bloody wars".
He was the only religious leader besides the Pope to refer specifically to September 11 in his public address.
"We are all too familiar with the way in which, on September 11, madmen who claimed to be acting in the name of religion plunged three airplanes into both towers of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, killing thousands in only a few minutes, thus causing the first international military conflict of the 21st century," he said.
"We must remember that in no religion are we commanded to kill indiscriminately, and those who have taught otherwise have done so by hijacking and distorting the religions in whose name they speak."
Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi, of al-Azhar University in Egypt, who is spiritual leader of the world's Sunni Muslims, sent a message thanking Pope John Paul for his initiative and explaining Islam's fidelity to God, its precept of respect for "all monotheistic religions revealed by God" and its emphasis on moral values.
"All the monotheistic religions preach that the human being should support law and justice, restoring the legitimate proprietors to their rights," he said, making his reference to tensions in the Holy Land obvious by thanking the Vatican for its "honourable support of the Palestinian people".
Wahby el Samman, a professor of Islamic law at al-Azhar, told reporters: "We do not know if Osama bin Laden is a good Muslim or not because we know him only from television, but I must say that the terrorists certainly are not good Muslims, because God does not want violence."
He said some Muslims hate others, "which can happen in a family".
But that did not mean Islam was the motivation or support for their hatred.
After sharing the "testimonies for peace" in Assisi, Pope John Paul and Patriarch Bartholomew led the Christians from 17 Orthodox churches and 14 Anglican and Protestant communities into the lower basilica for an ecumenical prayer service.
Franciscan friars escorted members of the other religions into their huge convent complex where, in separate places around the cloistered courtyard, each faith held its own prayer service.