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“Never Again!”

The great gathering in Assisi. Two hundred representatives of twelve religions and an array of cardinals, patriarchs, and metropolites. The purpose: to refute any theological foundation for the use of religion to justify violence and war. The Pope: “Christ is our peace”

By ANDREA TORNIELLI

January 24, 2002. On the day of the great gathering of the religions, the sky over Assisi seemed darkened by the clouds that John Paul II sees on the horizon in this crucial moment of the history of mankind. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th and the war in Afghanistan, the Pope did not fail to reiterate his concern, in tones light years away from the optimistic certainties of those who put their trust solely in armaments. The black clouds, driving rain, and strong wind frightfully amplified by the enormous tent (supported by a tangle of iron scaffoldings above the splendid square by the Lower Church in Assisi), all seemed to give physical form to the Pope’s anguish. Announcing this Day of Prayer at the Angelus of November 18, 2001, he had said, “It is my intention to invite the representatives of the world religions to come to Assisi on January 24, 2002, to pray for the overcoming of opposition and the promotion of authentic peace. In particular, we wish to bring Christians and Muslims together to proclaim to the world that religion must never be a reason for conflict, hatred and violence.”

The Pope’s purpose, declared from the outset, was to refute any theological foundation for the use of religion to justify violence, war, and terrorism, even at the cost of running some risk. Even at the cost of exposing himself to the inevitable criticism of those who consider these inter-religious meetings to be useless, if not damaging. Even at the cost of challenging those who say that similar gatherings contain in and of themselves the equivocation of syncretism, of the “religious supermarket.” At the cost of finding himself catechized by some Catholic editorialists who did not miss the chance–right on the day when all the media was speaking of the peace of Assisi–to point out the “bloody violence” of Islam.

On the Peace Train
It was the first time that John Paul II used the Vatican train station for a real trip. It was the first time he chose the train as transportation for one of his pilgrimages. Before him, only John XXIII, on October 4, 1962, had traveled the same route to implore the protection of Our Lady of Loreto and the Poor Man of Assisi for the Council he was about to inaugurate. At that time, waiting to greet the good Pope at the station of his destination, was the railway man Mario Giglio. Today, waiting for Pope John Paul II, along with various authorities and the Prime Minister, was this railway man’s son. Traveling with John Paul II were two hundred representatives of twelve religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Confucianism, animism, Jainism, Shinto, Sikhism, Tenrikyo, Zoroastrianism) and an array of cardinals, patriarchs, metropolites. Even Metropolite Pitirim was present, the representative of Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow, who seemed until two days earlier to have delegated a lower-ranking ecclesiastic. The Peace Train did not have special compartments or a special seat for the Pope, who sat in number 71.

Testifying to peace
When they reached the large square, packed with 2,300 young people, the delegations of the religions were welcomed by thunderous applause and ringing bells. For hours, in the early morning, they had swarmed in an orderly way, mixing with Buddhist monks in their orange robes, friars of every sort, pilgrims coming from far away, bishops from the East and the West. John Paul II was in finer form than usual. It was visible that he considered a minor miracle his having managed to call together and preside over the meeting. The overall view of the space under the tent, 4,000 square feet heated by powerful blasts of warm air, with a large red stage and a big olive tree as a backdrop, looked like a political party convention. But the words pronounced from the dark wood pulpit-lectern were much more important than the ones heard at party conventions.

Assisi 2002 began with “testimonies for peace” by the various religious representatives. The most authoritative was certainly that of Mohammed Tantawi, sheikh of Al-Ahzar, the great university in Cairo, who is the leading theological and juridical authority of Sunnite Islam. Tantawi was not there in person, but sent a message read by his representative. He spoke of the value of “cooperation among all peoples fostering voluntary service and piety, not offense and aggression;” quoted the Koran surah, which says, “There is no compulsion in religion;” and thanked the Vatican for its appeals in favor of the Palestinian people. The eyes of all were fixed on the Muslim representatives. The fact that some of them were committed to condemning terrorism and the distorted use of religion to justify violence and massacres is a small step forward.

After Tantawi’s spokesman, Rabbi Israel Singer of the World Jewish Congress was next to speak. He turned first to the Pope, improvising, “Only you, John Paul II, could have made a meeting like this possible.” Then, after reading part of a speech that was hardly pacifist in tone, full of citations of Biblical injunctions to “do battle against the enemy,” Singer improvised once again and referred to the crisis in the Holy Land: “We must ask ourselves if lands and places are more important than human lives. Until we ask ourselves this question, there will not be peace. Peace is too important to be left in the hands of generals and statesmen.” To be sure, Singer does not represent all Jews, and his words are not shared by the “hawks.” But if that question slowly made its way into the hearts of those who are fighting, perhaps peace would be nearer.

The words of John Paul II
The Pope’s address concluded the morning in Assisi and preceded the prayer that the various delegations raised individually in their separate spaces. “We wish to do our part in fending off the dark clouds of terrorism, hatred, armed conflict… For this reason we wish to listen to one another… The shadows will not be dissipated with weapons; darkness is dispelled by sending out bright beams of light.” John Paul II reiterated that the two pillars of peace are justice and forgiveness: “Justice, first of all, because there can be no true peace without respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, respect for the rights and duties of each person and respect for an equal distribution of benefits and burdens between individuals and in society as a whole. It can never be forgotten that situations of oppression and exclusion are often at the source of violence and terrorism. But forgiveness too, because human justice is subject to frailty and to the pressures of individual and group egoism. Forgiveness alone heals the wounds of the heart and fully restores damaged human relations.”

The key passage in the Pope’s address was this one: “Once again, gathered here together, we declare that whoever uses religion to foment violence contradicts religion’s deepest and truest inspiration. It is essential, therefore, that religious people and communities should in the clearest and most radical way repudiate violence, all violence, starting with the violence that seeks to clothe itself in religion, appealing even to the most holy name of God in order to offend man…. There is no religious goal which can possibly justify the use of violence by man against man.”

Here, too, the Holy Father did not fail to testify to his faith in Christ. “In His death on Golgotha, Jesus bore in His flesh the wounds of God’s passion for humanity. Bearing witness to the heavenly Father’s loving plan, He became our peace… . With Francis… let us fix our gaze on the mystery of the Cross, the tree of salvation sprinkled with the redeeming blood of Christ. The lives of Saint Francis, Saint Clare, and countless other Christian saints and martyrs were marked by the mystery of the Cross. Their secret was precisely this sign of the triumph of love over hatred, of forgiveness over retaliation, of good over evil.”

Finally, a passage in his address dealt with the risk of syncretism: “We wish to show the world that the genuine impulse to prayer does not lead to opposition and still less to disdain of others, but rather to constructive dialogue, a dialogue in which each one, without relativism or syncretism of any kind, becomes more deeply aware of the duty to bear witness and to proclaim.”

The commitment against violence and fanaticism
After the separate prayers–the Pope presided over the prayer of all the Christians in the Lower Church–and after a fraternal agape with a sober, strictly vegetarian menu, the representatives of the religions met once again in the covered square for the last act of Assisi 2002. The President of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, was in the audience. Featured were the reading of the common commitment against violence and the lighting of a lamp, which each delegate placed on a large tripod next to those of the others. The key paragraph of the text was the first, read by Rev Konrad Raiser, of the Ecumenical Council of Churches: “We commit ourselves to proclaiming our firm conviction that violence and terrorism are incompatible with the authentic spirit of religion and, as we condemn every recourse to violence and war in the name of God or religion, we commit ourselves to doing everything possible to eliminate the root causes of terrorism.” Two passages of the common commitment were read by Muslim delegates: “We commit ourselves to frank and patient dialogue, recognizing that to encounter the diversity of others can become an opportunity for greater reciprocal understanding.” “We commit ourselves to taking up the cry,” the Iranian Ayatollah Ghomi went on, “of those who refuse to be resigned to violence and evil.”

The conclusion was the Pope’s triple cry of “Never again!” “Violence never again! War never again! Terrorism never again! In the name of God, may every religion bring upon the earth Justice and Peace, Forgiveness and Life, Love!”