This Thursday, 27th
October, Pope Benedict will travel by train to Assisi to mark the 25th
anniversary of the meeting held by Pope John Paul II with world religious
leaders in 1986.
Pope John Paul II met religious leaders in Assisi in 1986 |
The following description
of the day is from Vatican News Service:
"The world today, as it did twenty-five years
ago, needs peace", said Cardinal Peter Turkson [President of the
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace]. "Following two and a half
decades of collaboration and joint witness among religions, it is time to
assess the results and to relaunch our commitment in the face of new
challenges", he explained. Those challenges include "the financial and
economic crisis which is lasting longer than expected, the crisis in democratic
and social institutions, food and environmental problems, biblical-scale
migrations, indirect forms of neo-colonialism, the scourge of poverty and
hunger, unchecked international terrorism, and greater inequality and religious
discrimination"
"Once more - and suffice to consider
recent events in Egypt
and other parts of the world - we must say 'no' to any exploitation of
religion. Violence among religions is a scandal which distorts the true
identity of religions, it obscures the face of God and distances us from the
faith.
"The journey of religions towards justice
and peace", the cardinal added, "must be characterised by a joint
search for truth. ... Therefore Benedict XVI wishes the 2011 initiative in Assisi ... to be seen as
a pilgrimage; the which implies asceticism, purification, convergence towards a
more exalted place, and taking on a community responsibility".
The search for truth "is a precondition
for knowing one another better, for overcoming all forms of prejudice, and of
syncretism which obscures identity". It likewise helps us "to
collaborate for the common good" and facilitates our "coming together
on the plane of natural reason". It is a prerequisite "for defeating
fanaticism and fundamentalism, according to which peace comes about by imposing
one's own convictions on others", and for overcoming "the Babel of
languages and the laicism which seeks to remove from the human family the One
Who is its Beginning and End".
Turning to consider the programme of events for
the Day, the cardinal explained that the various delegations will leave Rome by train on 27
October, in the company of the Holy Father. Having arrived in Assisi , they will make their way to the Basilica
of Santa Maria degli Angeli, where the delegations will recall the previous
meetings there and explore the theme of the Day in greater depth. The Holy
Father will also deliver an address. That afternoon, those present in will make
a "pilgrimage" to the Basilica of St. Francis, being joined on the
last stage by the members of the delegations. Having reached the basilica,
everyone will make a solemn renewal of their joint commitment to peace.
More than fifty nations will be
represented in Assisi .
They will include, apart from many European and American countries, Egypt , Israel ,
Pakistan , Jordan , Iran ,
Saudi Arabia , Philippines and
many others. "Those which, at this moment in history, perhaps suffer most
from problems associated with religious freedom and dialogue between
religions", Cardinal Turkson observed.
For his part, Msgr. Melchor Jose Sanchez de
Toca y Alameda ,
under secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, pointed out that the
Pope has, for the first time, also invited non-believers to a religious
meeting. "This innovative idea of the Holy Father's", he said,
"is based on the conviction that men and women, both believers and
non-believers, are always searching for God, for the Absolute, and that they
are, therefore, all pilgrims travelling towards the fullness of truth".
The Pope's invitation to participate in the Day
has been accepted by the French linguist, psychoanalyst, philosopher and writer
Julia Kristeva; the Italian philosopher Remo Bodei; the Mexican philosopher
Guillermo Hurtado, and the Austrian economist Walter Baier.