Spirit of Assisi descends on Auschwitz

(Sept.09,2009): Religious representatives from all over the world prayed on Tuesday at Germany’s concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, as part of the closing events of an interreligious meeting in "the spirit of Assisi." The three-day event convoked by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, and promoted by the Sant'Egidio Community, brought together Christians of all denominations and Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and other minority religious representatives. It was a continuation of the first interreligious and intercultural meeting called in 1986 in Assisi by late Pope John Paul II.
This year's theme was "The Spirit of Assisi in Krakow" and it particularly focused on the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. Marco Impagliazzo, president of the Sant'Egidio Community, told Vatican Radio that the pilgrimage to Auschwitz "reaffirms our conviction that dialogue is the only way to avoid these tragedies." The interreligious event ended Tuesday evening in Krakow's market square, with the "2009 Call to Peace."
"Peace is a gift, but it is also a task," said Cardinal Dziwisz in his greeting to open the congress at the Divine Mercy Shrine. "Every man and every generation must welcome this noble challenge, to build the foundations of the civilization of love and of life on our earth,,"In his address, Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant'Egidio Community, said that "the horror of the war is the greatest lesson for our times. War is the death of all that unites peoples,” he added.