c. 1999 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Addressing representatives of the world’s faiths at a dramatic twilight ceremony Thursday (Oct. 28) in St. Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul II condemned those who”wage war in the name of religion.””Any use of religion to support violence is an abuse of religion,”the Roman Catholic pontiff said.”Religion is not and must not become a pretext for conflict, particularly when religious, cultural and ethnic identity coincide.””Religious leaders,”he said,”must clearly show that they are pledged to promote peace precisely because of their religious belief.” The pope spoke at the ceremony closing four days of prayer and deliberations by some 200 representatives of more than 20 religious traditions. They included Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Confucianists, Zoroastrians, native Americans and a Canadian Mennonite leader.

The Dalai Lama, in Rome to meet with Italian leaders, sent two representatives to the meeting and attended the closing ceremony. He sat near the pope’s throne under a crimson awning on the broad steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Vatican’s Central Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 and the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue organized what they called the Inter-Religious Assembly as part of the church’s preparations for the third millennium of Christianity.

Bishop Michael Fitzgerald, secretary of the council, said the Vatican hopes interreligious groups will arrange similar meetings to promote dialogue at the grass-roots level.

Rosalind Preston of London, who is Jewish and active in the interfaith movement in England, told reporters earlier the participants had no disagreements over the content of their final message.”The most amazing thing is that if this meeting had taken place maybe five years ago there wouldn’t have been this agreement,”she said.”This shows the immense distance we have traveled. We all acknowledge we are traveling in parallel paths in the same direction.” She said a major point of convergence was on the importance of education to promote mutual understanding from an early age.”Interreligious collaboration does not imply giving up our own religious identity but is rather a journey of discovery,”the message said.”We learn to respect one another as members of the one human family. We learn to appreciate both our difference and the common values that bind us to one another.” Collaboration, it said,”must be based on the rejection of fanaticism, extremism and mutual antagonisms which lead to violence.” The message appealed to world leaders in every field”to refuse to allow religion to be used to incite hatred and violence, to refuse to allow religion to be used to justify discrimination, to respect the role of religion in society at international, national and local levels (and) to eradicate poverty and strive for social and economic justice.” It urged the participants”to seek forgiveness for past wrongs, to promote reconciliation where the painful experiences of the past have brought divisiveness and hatred and not let the past stand in the way of mutual appreciation and love, to commit ourselves to overcoming the gulf between rich and poor, and to work for a world of true and lasting peace.” Calling the pre-millennium assembly was the latest in a series of gestures John Paul has made during the 21 years of his pontificate to demonstrate his commitment to interfaith dialogue. He was the first pope to visit a Lutheran church and a Jewish synagogue, and in 1986 he invited all the world’s religious leaders to come to Italy to pray with him in the Umbrian hilltown of Assisi, birthplace of St. Francis, to mark the World Day of Prayer for Peace.”I have always believed that religious leaders have a vital role to play in nurturing that hope of justice and peace without which there will be no future worthy of humanity,”the pope said.

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Some 100,000 people attended the ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, which began with the lighting of five braziers, one for each of the world’s continents. When darkness fell, the participants lit candles from the braziers and the flames passed from hand to hand throughout the square.

Six speakers gave personal witness to the interfaith movement _ Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant’ Egidio Community of Catholic activists in Rome; John Brian Pearce, director of the Interfaith Network for the United Kingdom; Grand Rabbi Rene Samuel Sirat of France, vice president of the Conference of European Rabbis; African-American Muslim leader Warith Deen Mohammed; Usha Mehta, an Indian woman who was a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi; and Augustin Tiydze of Cameroon, a member of the Catholic Focolare Movement.

Three choral groups performed. A choir of Christians and Muslims sang in Arabic; a group of Roman Jews sang Psalm 150; and Gen Rosso, an international group from near Florence, led all the singers in”Vive!,”a salsa-style celebration of life written for the occasion.

DEA END POLK