PEACE MUST FIRST BE BUILT IN THE HUMAN HEART

VATICAN CITY, SEP 4, 2006 (VIS) - Made public today was a Message from the Holy Father to Bishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi-Nocera-Umbra-Gualdo Tadino, Italy, for the 20th Inter-religious Meeting of Prayer for Peace, being held in Assisi on September 4 and 5.

  Benedict XVI recalls how twenty years ago, on October 27 1986, the first such meeting was held, promoted by Servant of God John Paul II. Since then, writes the Pope in his Message, "the most important event ... has without doubt been the fall of the communist-inspired regimes of Eastern Europe," and the end "of the Cold War which had created a kind of division of the world into opposing spheres of influence. ... That was a moment of general hope for peace. ... Unfortunately this dream has not come true. Quite the contrary, the third millennium began with episodes of terrorism and violence that show no signs of abating."

  John Paul II's call "to the leaders of world religions to bear choral witness to peace, served to clarify beyond any possibility of doubt that religion cannot but be a harbinger of peace." On this subject, Benedict XVI highlights how, as a consequence, no one is permitted "to present religious difference as a reason or pretext for a belligerent attitude towards other human beings."

  The Holy Father goes on to point out how the 1986 meeting promoted by John Paul II highlighted "the value of prayer in the construction of peace. ... Firstly, however, peace must be built in the human heart," which "is the place of God's interventions."

  John Paul II, writes Pope Benedict, "called for authentic prayer, prayer that involved all of existence. For this reason he wished it to be accompanied by fasting and expressed through pilgrimage, symbol of the journey towards the meeting with God." The value of prayer "in building peace was expressed by exponents of different religious traditions" who thus demonstrated "how prayer does not divide but unites, and constitutes a vital element in an effective education for peace."

  "Of such education we have more need than ever, especially if we consider the new generations," says the Holy Father, going on to express his joy at an initiative being promoted in Assisi by the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, involving a meeting for dialogue, prayer and education for peace, for young Catholics and young people from other religions.

  Benedict XVI's Message also recalls the care taken at Assisi twenty years ago to ensure that "the inter-religious prayer meeting did not lend itself to syncretistic interpretations based on relativist concepts."

  Therefore, his Message concludes, "even when we find ourselves together to pray for peace, it is important that prayer take place according to those distinct paradigms particular to the various religions. This was the decision in 1986, and such a decision cannot but still be valid today. The convergence of opposites must not give the impression of a capitulation to the relativism that denies the very meaning of truth and the possibility of attaining it."
MESS/INTER-RELIGIOUS MEETING/ASSISI                VIS 20060904 (520)