'Violence never again'

Sydney
3 February 2002

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'Violence never again' - Pope

By Johanna Bennett

"Violence never again," said Pope John Paul at last week's meeting of more than 200 religious leaders held at the hillside town of Assisi, birthplace of St Francis.

The 81-year-old Pope called the Day of Prayer in the wake of the September 11 plane bombing of New York and Washington and the subsequent war in Afghanistan.

He wants religious leaders to help fend off "the dark clouds of terrorism, hatred and armed conflict" he said at the meeting, which was held under a giant tarpaulin that covered the lower half of Assisi's St Francis Square.

Imams, patriarchs, monks and rabbis from around the world joined the Pope under a leaden afternoon winter sky that was quite in tune with the implicit sadness of the occasion.

Cold winds blew and rain fell as the Pope said: "In the name of God, may every religion bring upon the earth justice and peace, forgiveness and life, love."

At the end of the meeting, as the light failed, the Pope's guests placed lighted glass and terracotta oil lamps on a large table as a sign of hope.

Perhaps we saw an early sign of peace in the words of the eight Muslims who spoke at the January 24 meeting.

They, with Christians, had been the Pope's particular focus in convening the three-hour-long ecumenical meeting, which drew together leaders from 12 religious traditions.

Of the 28 participants who requested the microphone in five-minute slots during the meeting, eight were Muslim - the most of any religious group. "What makes us suffer the most is the abuse that is made of religion and in the name of religion," said Hojjatoleslam Ghomi, an Iranian Shi'ite Muslim leader.

The Muslims condemned terrorism and strongly denied any link between authentic Islam and violence. At a Vatican meeting the day before, they commented that peace in the Holy Land hinged on an end to Israeli "aggression" and withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territories.

The Pope travelled to Assisi by train from Rome - a two-hour journey. Then the Popemobile took him to St Francis Square where he met the representatives of the 12 religious traditions and their delegations. Assisi had been chosen because St Francis is the saint most closely associated with peace.

It is the third time Pope John Paul has called a prayer meeting at Assisi. The message of all three has been the same: violence should never be carried out in the name of God.

The first such meeting was held in 1986 as a peaceful protest against nuclear war; the second, in 1993, as a rally for peace in the Balkans.

At his weekly audience in Rome the day before the meeting, the Pope said his journey was a "pilgrimage of hope" and that he was "following in the footsteps of St Francis, a prophet and witness of peace."

Because of faith differences Christians and non-Christians could not pray together - they had to do this separately - but instead took part in a three-hour informal exchange.

Cardinal Ratzinger, who was a late addition to the passenger list for the Assisi train, said the fact that they could not pray together did not mean they should not have gathered in support of peace.

He said he hoped the Pope's initiative would send "a strong signal for peace". The fact that the world had such a wide variety of faiths could not be ignored, especially when promoting faith-based peace initiatives, he said.

Notable by its absence from the Assisi meeting was the Greek Orthodox Church. This was not because of any ecumenical misgivings among leaders, but because of uneasiness among its faithful, Bishop Athanasios of Achaia had explained earlier.

He said his people needed time to come to terms with the idea of praying with non-Christians and to understand that in doing so they were not indiscriminately mixing religious beliefs.

See next week's Catholic Weekly for Pope John Paul's speech and for pictures of this historic event.