Tonight on Perspectives: Leaders of different faiths gather in Assisi to pray for peace and justice. Plus, we take a look at what’s happening across the country.
Interfaith pilgrimage to Assisi: In quotes
October 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
“Violence and terrorism are incompatible with the authentic spirit of religions.”
-Rt. Rev. Dr. Munib Younan, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land“We, humanists in dialogue with believers, commit ourselves together with all men and women of good will to building a new world in which respect for the dignity of each and every person … is the foundation for life in society.”
-Guillermo Hurtado, Mexican philosopher and one of four non-religious delegates invited by the Pontifical Council for Culture“We affirm that building peace requires loving one’s neighbor.”
-Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople“We commit ourselves to … dialogue, refusing to consider our differences an insurmountable barrier.”
-Allama Zubair Abid, Pakistani imam“Through interfaith dialogue, we can unite in common cause to lift the afflicted, make peace where there is strife, and find the way forward to create a better world for ourselves and our children.”
-U.S. President Barack Obama, via Suzan Johnson Cook, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, and Miguel H. Diaz, U.S. ambassador to the Vatican“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”
-Pope Benedict XVI
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Credit: CNS photo/Paul Haring
Interfaith pilgrimage to Assisi: In numbers
October 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
300
More than three hundred religious leaders from across the globe gathered in Assisi for the “Day of reflection, dialogue, and prayer for peace and justice in the world”.
25
We celebrate twenty-five years since the anniversary of the first Assisi interfaith prayer summit.
19
St. Francis of Assisi was nineteen years old when he abandoned worldly ambitions. He was a prisoner of war at the time.
145
Assisi is located 145 kilometres north of Rome.
6 million
Six million pilgrims make their way to Assisi each year to visit the tomb of St. Francis.
1
Benedict XVI says we have one goal: “We are animated by the common desire to be ‘pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace.’”
Programming note: If you missed our morning broadcast of the interfaith pilgrimage to Assisi, S+L will rebroadcast the events this evening starting at 7:35pm ET/4:35pm PT.
Let us be ‘pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace’
October 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Here is Pope Benedict XVI’s speech in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Assisi, Italy, before representatives of the world’s religions and non-believers:
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Distinguished Heads and Representatives of Churches, Ecclesial Communities and World Religions, Dear Friends,
Twenty-five years have passed since Blessed Pope John Paul II first invited representatives of the world’s religions to Assisi to pray for peace. What has happened in the meantime? What is the state of play with regard to peace today? At that time the great threat to world peace came from the division of the earth into two mutually opposed blocs. A conspicuous symbol of this division was the Berlin Wall which traced the border between two worlds right through the heart of the city. In 1989, three years after Assisi, the wall came down, without bloodshed. Suddenly the vast arsenals that stood behind the wall were no longer significant. They had lost their terror. The peoples’ will to freedom was stronger than the arsenals of violence. The question as to the causes of this dramatic change is complex and cannot be answered with simple formulae. But in addition to economic and political factors, the deepest reason for the event is a spiritual one: behind material might there were no longer any spiritual convictions. The will to freedom was ultimately stronger than the fear of violence, which now lacked any spiritual veneer. For this victory of freedom, which was also, above all, a victory of peace, we give thanks. What is more, this was not merely, nor even primarily, about the freedom to believe, although it did include this. To that extent we may in some way link all this to our prayer for peace.
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Perspectives Daily – Wednesday, Oct. 26
October 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Tonight on Perspectives: We look ahead to tomorrow’s live coverage of Assisi and officials at the Vatican talk global reform.
Follow the Pope and world religious leaders to Assisi on S+L
October 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Twenty-five years ago, John Paul II joined leaders of other world religions for a historic encounter in Assisi, Italy. Tomorrow, his successor makes his own journey to the town of St. Francis for the “Day of Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer for Peace and Justice”.
Benedict XVI typically travels by plane, but tomorrow he will be boarding a train in Vatican City, along with delegates representing other religious traditions. After an hour and forty-five minute journey, they will arrive in Assisi and proceed to the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
There, leaders from other Christian churches will speak, including the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Churches, Bartholomew I, and the Primate of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Rowan Williams. Representing the Grand Rabbinate of Israel will be Rabbi David Rosen, a prominent figure in Jewish-Catholic dialogue. Representatives of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Yoruba (practiced mainly in Western Africa) will also address the group, before the Pope will speak.
According to the official program, lunch will be “frugal”, appropriate to the Franciscan spirit. A unique element of the day is that the religious leaders will then retreat privately to separate rooms for a “period of silence, reflection and personal prayer”, before they reconvene at the Piazza San Francesco to solemnly renew their joint commitment to peace. The day-long pilgrimage ends with a visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi.
Watch S+L for live coverage on S+L TV and streaming online on our website. Host Kris Dmytrenko will be joined by guest commentator Fr. Damian Macpherson, SA of the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs of the Archdiocese of Toronto. The full broadcast schedule is below.
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