03/05/2006

Interreligious peace gathering in U.S. marks 20 years since Assisi

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Themes of prayer, peace, justice, love, dialogue and care for the poor intermingled as representatives of world religions gathered at Georgetown University in Washington April 26 for the 2006 International Prayer for Peace.

It marked the 20th anniversary of the first such gathering, convened by Pope John Paul II in 1986 in Assisi, Italy, and it was the first time the yearly interreligious prayer and dialogue meeting was held in the United States.

Religious leaders of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Shintoists and Sikhs were among the more than 500 participants.

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of the Washington Archdiocese, one of the co-sponsors of the two-day gathering, told the group that by coming together they were fulfilling Pope John Paul's dream "that we would pray together for peace."

But he added that Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical, "God Is Love" ("Deus Caritas Est"), added another dimension to the meeting. "Because God is love, we must love each other. ... We will find peace in our love for each other," he said.

"Religion and Cultures: The Courage of Dialogue" was the overall theme of the two-day gathering, co-sponsored by Georgetown University, the Washington Archdiocese, The Catholic University of America and the Rome-based Sant'Egidio Community.

The community, which now has 50,000 members in 70 countries, is an organization of lay Catholics devoted to serving the poor and working for peace. After Pope John Paul convened world religious leaders in Assisi to pray side by side for peace, the community began sponsoring a similar international gathering every year to keep the spirit of the Assisi gathering alive.

The two-and-a-half-hour opening session of the Washington meeting included brief talks by heads of sponsoring organizations and a panel discussion featuring an American Muslim leader, the chief rabbi of Haifa, Israel, and the Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Ireland.

Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia reminded the participants that all religions must face the challenges posed by violence and poverty in a world where 1 billion people are in abject poverty, living on less than $1 a day, and 2 billion people have less than $2 a day.

Ambassador Karen P. Hughes, U.S. undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, challenged the young people at the gathering to start an interfaith grass-roots peace movement "to do to terrorism what was done to slavery in the 19th century."

"The targeting of innocents is not a legitimate tenet of any faith," she said. She reminded them that the anti-slavery movement began as a religious movement among a few small Christian denominations but grew to capture the conscience of the world.

Sant'Egidio founder Andrea Riccardi said the pope's purpose in Assisi 20 years ago was simple: to invite representatives of all faiths "to pray, one alongside another," for peace.

Following up on the pope's 1986 initiative, "for 20 years we have been pilgrims of dialogue with people of other religions," he said.

He said he welcomed the opportunity to convene the 2006 prayer gathering in Washington. "We had to come to the United States. We had to come after Sept. 11."

He called the spirit of Assisi "a wind that blows and breaks barriers" and said, "It is a civilization that must be realized throughout the world, a civilization of living together."

"Peace does not fear diversity. Peace does not deny differences," he said. "But differences cannot be a reason to hate one another."

He said religions must address the needs of the poor in their pilgrimage toward peace. "The poor are the first victims of war," he said, and "war is the mother of all poverty."

During the panel discussion, led by journalist E.J. Dionne, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin spoke about the nature of interreligious dialogue and differences in that dialogue in different parts of the world.

"The premise for any dialogue is repentance," he said. He added that people of different religions entering into dialogue must attend to "the integrity of the fundamental message" of their faith.

Chief Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen of Haifa said that repentance is a central tenet of Judaism and must underlie dialogue. He linked it to the great commands of Scripture, to love God and to love one's neighbor as oneself. If one has offended his neighbor, one must seek forgiveness, he said.

Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, head of the Mosque Cares organization, who founded the Muslim American Society and has long been one of the most influential American Muslims engaged in interfaith dialogue, said: "Before we were black or white, we were human. ... Why can't we all join together and lift up that center" of what unites all human beings?

Before the opening session of the gathering, about 100 of the religious leaders involved met at Catholic University for a luncheon.

The schedule for the second day of the gathering was devoted to more than a dozen panel discussions on religious dialogue and religious responses to current challenges to peace, justice and human life and dignity, culminating in an hour of prayer at different sites around the campus and closing ceremonies that included participants signing a joint appeal for peace.