Pope holds up religion as catalyst for peace

(September 12, 2011) Denouncing the terrible violence and terrorism that continue to suffocate man’s hope for peaceful coexistence, Pope Benedict XVI held up religion in its true sense as a unifying force that reminds all human beings they are children of the one God. The Pope said this in a message sent to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany, where representatives of the world’s religions began a 3-day peace meeting on Sunday, the 10^th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The September 11-13 meeting entitled "Bound to live together" has been convened by the lay Catholic Community of Sant'Egidio. Inter-faith peace meetings have been regularly organized by the Community of Sant’Edigio since the first such meeting convened in the central Italian city of Assisi by Pope John Paul II, 25 years ago on Oct. 27, 1986. In his message to the Munich meeting Pope Benedict reminded participants that the meet theme “Bound to live together” reminds human beings that we are bound to one another – a condition that derives directly from our human condition, and hence it our duty to give it a positive shape.” Since it is in the heart that the Lord makes neighbours of us, the Pope said, it is religion that is essentially linked with the question of peace. “If religion fails to bring about an encounter with God and lowers God to self, making Him our private property instead of elevating the self to Him, then religion can contribute to destroying peace. Instead, if religion leads to the Divine, to the Creator and Redeemer, then it becomes a strongpoint of peace, the Pope said.