RELIGIOUS BELIEF IS THE ANTIDOTE TO VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT

VATICAN CITY, MAR 11, 2002 (VIS) - The Pope wrote a message to Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio in Cyprus, for his participation in a meeting being held in Nicosia, Cyprus, convened by the Cultural Foundation of the Holy Monastery of Kykkos 'Archangelos,' in collaboration with the department of communication and mass media of the Panteion University in Athens. The message, written in English, bears the date of March 6, 2002.
"The theme of the meeting, dialogue between religions and cultures," writes the Pope, "is most timely. It carries with it the challenge to foster practical ways of improving understanding among peoples, and thus forms the basis upon which to face many of the problems burdening the human family at the beginning of this millennium. The tyranny of injustice, egoism and prejudice can only be defeated by a far-reaching resurgence of the human spirit in individual hearts and in relations between the peoples of the world.

"It is my heartfelt prayer that the meeting in Nicosia will show that there is no basis, either in theory or in practice, for any discrimination between individual and individual or between people and people; all share the same human dignity and the rights which flow from it."

The Pope concludes by recalling the meeting of leaders of the world's religions at Assisi, Italy, on January 24 "to pray for peace and to commit themselves to serving the cause of peace. They wished to show that genuine religious belief is an inexhaustible wellspring of mutual respect and harmony among peoples; indeed it is the chief antidote to violence and conflict."

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