Religions cannot be used for war

Screenshot

Source: Vatican News/Sant'Egidio

Religious leaders from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Hinduism, came together for Spirit of Assisi event in the Colosseum in Rome this week to make an urgent appeal for peace - at a time in which the war in Ukraine, and conflicts in other parts of the world have intensified. The three-day peace summit, held under the theme 'Il Grido della Pace' (The Cry for Peace), was hosted by the Community of Sant'Egidio, and welcomed Heads of State, religious leaders, and various high-ranking authorities.

In his closing address on Tuesday, Pope Francis said: "Religions cannot be used for war. Only peace is holy, and no one is to use the name of God to bless terror and violence. If you see wars around you, do not resign yourselves! The peoples desire peace."

The Pope said the appeal for peace he and religious leaders declared together a year ago, in the same place, was "all the more timely today," and "we must strive to do ever better each day."

"Today let us raise to heaven our plea for peace," the Pope said. In the face of threats of nuclear weapons and anguished pleas, the Pope warned that war constitutes "a failure" and suggested it "summons everyone" to do everything, at every level, to stop it.

The event was inaugurated on Sunday at the 'Nuvola' Congress Center in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian President Sergio Matterella.

This marks the third consecutive year Pope Francis has participated in the event. While the Summits generally were held in different European cities, since the pandemic, they have been held in Rome, and with the Holy Father's presence at each prayer gathering.

The Pope said: "In a special way, I thank the Christian leaders and those of other religions, who have joined us in the same spirit of fraternity that inspired the first historic convocation willed by Saint John Paul II in Assisi, thirty-six years ago."

"This year our prayer has become a heartfelt plea," he said, "because today peace has been gravely violated, assaulted and trampled upon, and this in Europe, on the very continent that in the last century endured the horrors of two World Wars."

"..The situation that we are presently experiencing is particularly dramatic." That is why, he said, we have raised our prayer to God, "who always hears the anguished plea of His sons and daughters."

Peace is at the heart of religions, their sacred writings, and their teaching, the Pope said.

That plea for peace, he lamented, is often stifled, not only by hostile rhetoric but also by indifference. "It is reduced to silence by hatred, which spreads as the fighting continues."

Yet, the plea for peace cannot be suppressed he said. "It rises from the hearts of mothers; it is deeply etched on the faces of refugees, displaced families, the wounded and the dying. And this silent plea rises up to heaven."

It has no magic formulas for ending conflict, he continued, "but it does have the sacred right to implore peace in the name of all those who suffer, and it deserves to be heard."

"It rightfully summons everyone, beginning with government leaders, to take time and listen, seriously and respectfully."

That plea for peace, he said, expresses "the pain and the horror of war," which is "the mother of all poverty."

"Every war leaves our world worse than it was before. War is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil," continued Pope Francis.

These convictions, the Pope said, are the fruit of the painful lessons of the twentieth century, "and sadly, once more, the beginning of the twenty-first."

"Today, in fact, something we dreaded and hoped never to hear of again is threatened outright: the use of atomic weapons, which even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki continued wrongly to be produced and tested."

"In this bleak scenario, where, sad to say, the plans of potent world leaders make no allowance for the just aspirations of peoples, God's plan for our salvation, which is 'a plan for peace and not for evil,' never changes."

"Peace," the Pope said, "is God's gift, and we have implored that gift from Him." "Yet peace must be embraced and nurtured by us men and women, especially by those of us who are believers."

The Pope then made a series of appeals: "Let us not be infected by the perverse rationale of war; let us not fall into the trap of hatred for the enemy. Let us once more put peace at the heart of our vision for the future, as the primary goal of our personal, social and political activity at every level."

"Let us defuse conflicts," he said, "by the weapon of dialogue."

"In October 1962, amid a grave international crisis, when military confrontation and nuclear holocaust seemed imminent, Saint John XXIII made this appeal: 'We plead with all government leaders not to remain deaf to this cry of humanity. Let them do everything in their power to safeguard peace... They will, thus spare the world the horrors of a war, the terrible consequences of which cannot be foreseen... Promoting, fostering, and accepting dialogue at all levels and in all times is a rule of wisdom and prudence that attracts the blessing of heaven and earth.'"

Sixty years later, Pope Francis observed, these words still impress us by their timeliness, saying he makes them his own.

"We are not 'neutral', but allied for peace", and for that reason "we invoke the ius pacis as the right of all to settle conflicts without violence."

The Pope expressed appreciation that in recent years, fraternal relations between religions have taken decisive steps forward. He also reiterated that religions cannot be used for war, and that God's name can never bless terror and violence.

Pope Francis concluded by appealing for nations and peoples to never grow used to war or resigned to it, calling instead for reconciliation and voices raised together to heaven for peace.

Among religious leaders attending were the Chief Rabbi of France, Haim Korsia, Muhammed bin Abdul Karim Issa, Secretary of the Islamic World League. Cardinal Kurt Koch of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and Cardinal José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça of the Dicastery for Education and Culture, presidents of national Bishops' Conferences, Cardinal Raffael Sako of Iraq, and Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris, were also present.

This year's gathering marked the 36th edition of the meetings initiated in the wake of the historic World Day of Interreligious Prayer for Peace of 27 October 1986, convoked by Pope St. John Paul II.