[Announce] God is stronger than those who want war

[Robert Waldrop]

Courtesy of www.zenit.org .  RMW

Peace Appeal Issued at Assisi Meeting of Prayer
"God Is Stronger Than Those Who Want War"

ASSISI, Italy, SEPT. 7, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is 
the Peace Appeal issued at the International 
Meeting of Prayer for Peace, held in Assisi on 
Monday and Tuesday. The appeal was signed by 
hundreds of representatives of various religions.

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Men and women of different religions, we gathered 
in Assisi, the city of Francis, the saint of 
peace, in a difficult time for our world, heavily 
burdened with tensions, conflicts and terrorist 
threats. We evoked the audacious and prophetic 
initiative of John Paul II in 1986, when the cold 
war was at its peak and he invited to Assisi the 
religious leaders of the world to pray for peace.

That was the beginning of a path of dialogue, 
prayer and peace, that has now led us back to 
Assisi. Along the way, it released energies of 
peace and sustained many people's hopes for a 
future of peace. During these days, we focused on 
our diverse religious traditions. In different 
ways they testify to a message of peace with 
ancient roots. We were joined in our dialogue by 
secular humanists, men and women. We lived a 
school of dialogue.

Today we have gathered in prayer according to our 
different religious traditions, believing in the 
value of invoking God for the construction of 
peace. We have shown that prayer does not divide, 
rather it unites: We have prayed one beside the 
other; we will never pray one against the other. 
We have turned our attention to many situations of 
conflict and sorrow, involving thousands of 
people, families, and entire populations. We 
shared their suffering. We do not want to forget 
them, nor accept their sorrows.

There are many problems in the world today. Yet, 
we do not surrender to the culture of conflict, 
that considers clashes the impending unavoidable 
fate of entire religious communities, cultures and 
civilizations. We are believers, men and women. We 
are not naive. The century that has gone by showed 
us that world wars, the Shoah, genocides of 
unimaginable proportions, mass oppression and 
totalitarian ideologies stole millions of human 
lives, and have not transformed the world as they 
had promised.

For this reason we say: Clashes are never an 
unavoidable fate, no war is ever natural. Peace is 
vital, even when it seems difficult or desperate 
to pursue. We want to help every man and every 
woman, those who have governmental 
responsibilities, to lift up their eyes, beyond 
pessimism, and discover that hope is at hand when 
we are capable of living the art of dialogue.

Religions accustom believers to accomplish those 
high values that many people consider hard to 
attain. We cannot give up reducing the abyss 
between rich and poor. We cannot give up seeking 
peace with all our efforts. Here, from the hill of 
Assisi, we communicate and offer our hope, asking 
believers in our communities to pray and work for 
peace. We believe in dialogue, patient, truthful 
and sensible: dialogue in search for peace but 
also dialogue to avoid the abyss that separate 
cultures and people and lead to severe conflicts. 
All of us, belonging to different religions, we 
affirmed the value of dialogue, of living in 
peace, and we practiced it in these days, in a 
spirit of friendship, as a model and an example 
for the believers in our communities.

War is not unavoidable. Religions never justify 
hatred and violence. Those using the name of God 
to destroy others move away from true religion. 
Those spreading terror, death and violence in the 
name of God must remember that peace is the name 
of God. God is stronger than those who want war, 
cultivate hatred, and live on violence. We hope 
for a world of peace. Nothing is lost through 
dialogue, everything is possible with peace! War 
never again. May God grant to the world the 
wonderful gift of peace!

Assisi, September 5, 2006

[Text adapted]

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To sign the appeal, see 
www.santegidio.org/en/ecumenismo/uer/2006/assisi/form_appel.htm