Week
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January 23, 2002
Inside the Register
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More than 150 religious leaders to join pope in Assisi
Estimated
two dozen Muslims to take part in day of prayer for peace
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — More than 150 religious leaders, including about two dozen Muslims, will join Pope John Paul II in a pilgrimage to Assisi, Italy, Jan. 24 to pray for peace and condemn violence committed in the name of religion.
At the same time, in dioceses throughout the world, Catholics will be hosting ecumenical prayer services to ask God for the gift of peace and interreligious meetings to make commitments to use faith to foster peace.
The pope is expected to be joined by Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the worldwide spiritual leader of the Orthodox, in leading the pilgrimage of religious representatives to Assisi.
The pilgrimage, a two-hour train journey from the Vatican, also will include other Christian leaders, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and followers of traditional African religions, as well as the Muslims.
The leaders will share reflections on peace during a morning gathering before going to separate places to pray for peace in the rites of their own traditions.
In the Basilica of St. Francis, the pope will pray with Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant representatives and with Catholic bishops from several countries, including Pakistan.
Pope John Paul announced the meeting in mid-November as a religious response to terrorism and the threat of new conflicts in the world.
He said one point of the Jan. 24 Assisi gathering would be to bring leaders of religions, "in particular, Christians and Muslims," together to proclaim that faith must never be used to justify violence or hatred.
The daylong Assisi meeting is expected to close with the reading in Arabic, English and Italian of the religious leaders' "common commitment to peace."
Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and an organizer of the Assisi event, said the meeting "will say `no' to religious wars and to all acts of violence and terrorism, especially when they are perpetrated in the name of religion."
Writing in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, he said the pilgrimage by train could be an important part of the meeting's message by showing "the followers of various religions are convinced that it is necessary for them to travel together on the path that leads to peace."
The pope's Assisi meeting was preceded by a Dec. 14 day of fasting and prayers for peace by Catholics around the world.
Pope John Paul had said he was convinced that the world "needs to see gestures of peace and hear words of hope," and that the day of fasting and the interreligious meeting would be a start.
In addition to promoting the day of fasting and charitable giving in December, Catholic bishops around the world also were asked to organize events around Jan. 24: a pilgrimage between Dec. 14 and Jan. 24 "to implore from the Lord the gift of peace and the conversion of hearts"; and an ecumenical prayer vigil Jan. 23.
A Vatican official said Jan. 14 that although the list of participants was still provisional, at least 26 Muslim leaders from at least 14 countries had accepted the pope's invitation to travel to Assisi. The Muslim leaders include representatives from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Philippines, Algeria and the United States.
Another Vatican official confirmed the news that the Orthodox Church of Greece had declined to participate at any level, but the Russian Orthodox Church was sending a representative; relations between the Vatican and the Russian and Greek churches have been cool in recent years.
Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius IV of Antioch, whom the pope visited in Syria in May, and Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV, head of the Assyrian Church of the East, have accepted the papal invitation, officials said.
As in 1986, when Pope John Paul hosted a huge interreligious peace meeting in Assisi, the 2002 meeting was publicized with repeated Vatican statements that members of different religions would be praying for peace at the same time, but not together.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said members of the divided Christian communities can and should pray together because they have been baptized into the body of Christ.
But, he said in an article in L'Osservatore Romano, Christians and followers of other religions "cannot pray together" because their prayers are expressions of a faith they do not share.
Praying separately, but at the same time, gives witness to the values the different religions do share: "respect for God and the divine and the desire for God or the divine; respect for life; and the desire for peace with God or the divine, for peace among peoples and peace in the cosmos," the cardinal said.
"They can and must collaborate to defend and promote social justice, moral values, peace and freedom for the good of all men and women," the cardinal said.
Also writing in L'Osservatore Romano, Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said the papal initiative underscores the fact that the response of believers to war and violence must be one of "concentrating on the essentials, looking ahead, beyond the dark night, to have the courage for something new."
Ecumenical prayer vigil for peace
All are invited to attend an ecumenical prayer vigil for peace with Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., and Metropolitan Isaiah, head of the Greek Orthodox Denver Diocese, 7:30 tonight at Christ the King Chapel. The chapel is at the John Paul II Center, 1300 S. Steele St.
Various parishes also are holding liturgies. Call your parish for information.