POPE WELCOMES EGYPT'S NEW AMBASSADOR TO THE HOLY SEE

VATICAN CITY, SEP 7, 2000 (VIS) - Pope John Paul today received the Letters of Credence of Farouk Hussein Raafat, Egypt's new ambassador to the Holy See. In his welcome speech, he recalled "the joy of my days spent in your country last February, ... especially Mount Sinai where I was able to commemorate the gift of the Law which God wrote long ago on the tablets of stone and which He continues to write in every age on the human heart."

The Pope observed that "in a world deeply marked by violence, it is bitterly ironic that even now some of the worst conflicts are between believers who worship the one God, who look to Abraham as a holy patriarch and who seek to follow the Law of Sinai. Each act of violence makes it more urgent for Muslims and Christians everywhere to recognize the things we have in common, .... and to agree once and for all that recourse to violence in the name of religion is totally unacceptable.

"Especially when religious identity coincides with cultural and ethnic identity it is a solemn duty of believers to ensure that religious sentiment is not used as an excuse for hatred and conflict. Religion is the enemy of exclusion and discrimination."

The Holy Father added that, during his visit, he was "deeply moved by the memory of the rich Christian culture that emerged in Alexandria, of the many Egyptian saints and martyrs of the Church, and of the Christian monasticism which appeared first in the Egyptian desert and spread from there throughout the world."

Lastly, he spoke of the Middle East peace process, thanking Egypt for its role, and highlighting the Church's "interest in the search for peace in the region. ... In fulfilling her religious mission, the Church is present in the temporal order above all through her efforts to educate consciences to the truths and values which are the foundations of the well-being of individuals and of societies," in particular human dignity.

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