Pope says peace threatened by secularism, abuse of religion to justify violence
(September 10, 2012) Pope Benedict has urged a 3-day international peace meeting
of religions in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzogovina, to fight secularism that
denies God’s existence and the use of religion to justify violence. The 26th
International Meeting for Peace, September 9-11, organized by the Rome-based Catholic
lay community of Sant'Egidio, has as its theme, “Living Together is the Future".
Sarajevo, a major theatre of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II in
the 1990s following the break-up of Yugoslavia, has for the first time brought together
the different Balkan religious community leaders: Serbian orthodox, Catholic, Muslim
and Jews. Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, sent a message on
the Pope’s behalf to Cardinal Vinco Puljic, Archbishop of Sarajevo, expressing the
Holy Father’s satisfaction on seeing San Egidio’s annual initiative continuing to
bear fruit 26 after Pope John Paul convoked the first such peace meeting of religious
leaders from around the world in Assisi, Italy. Pope Benedict himself marked the
25th anniversary of his predecessor’s initiative last year in Assisi.
On that occasion, the Pontiff had noted that peace today was being threatened by two
negative trends: namely, using religion to justify violence and by denying the existence
of God in the name of secularism. The Pope observed that these trends, that unleashes
unbridled violence, has been witnessed in a dramatic way by Sarajevo, in a war that
has brought death and destruction in the Balkans.
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