Pope: ‘In this night of conflict, may religions be a
dawn of peace’
(Vatican Radio) Pope
Francis has called on Muslim leaders to join him in
giving a united response to a conflict-ridden world and to build together a
future of peace.
Speaking on Sunday afternoon
to Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazadeh, Grand Mufti of the
Caucasus during an interreligious meeting at the end of his apostolic visit to
Azerbaijan, the Pope said that today “we are challenged to give a response that
can no longer be put off”.
To the Sheikh – who is also
the Chairman of the Caucasian Muslims Office – and who received him in the
Aliyev Mosque of Baku, the Pope said: “now is not the time for violent or
abrupt solutions, but rather an urgent moment to engage in patient processes of
reconciliation. The real question of our time is not how to advance our
own causes, but what proposals for life are we offering to future generations;
how to leave them a better world than the one we have received”.
And reiterating his appeal:
“no more violence in the name of God!”, Pope Francis said it is not opposition
but cooperation that helps to build better and more peaceful societies.
“The fraternity and sharing
that we seek to increase will not be appreciated by those who want to highlight
divisions, reignite tensions and profit from opposition and differences;
rather, fraternity and sharing are invoked and longed for by those who desire
the common good, and are above all pleasing to God, the Compassionate and All
Merciful, who wishes his sons and daughters in the one human family to be ever
more united among themselves and always in dialogue with one another” he said.
The Pope also pointed to the
important role of religions that, he said, “ are called to help us understand
that the centre of each person is outside of himself, that we are oriented
towards the Most High and towards the other who is our neighbour”.
“Religion is a compass that
orients us to the good and steers us away from evil” he said.
Pope Francis also said that
as spiritual leaders “we have a great responsibility, in order to offer
authentic responses to men and women who are searching, who are often lost
among the swirling contradictions of our time”
On the contrary religions, he
said, help to discern the good and put it into practice and they are
called to do so by building “a culture of encounter and peace, based on
patience, understanding, and humble, tangible steps”.
“For its part, society must
always overcome the temptation to take advantage of religious factors:
religions must never be instrumentalized, nor can they ever lend support to, or
approve of, conflicts and disagreements” he said.
“In this night of conflict
that we are currently enduring, Pope Francis said; “may religions be a
dawn of peace”.
Please find below the full
text of Pope Francis’ speech to the Sheikh and the Representatives of the
different Religious Communities of the Country:
Our being
here together is a blessing. I thank the Leader of the Muslims in the
Caucasus, who welcomes us with his customary hospitality, and the local
religious Leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as the Leaders of the
Jewish Communities. Meeting one another in fraternal friendship in this
place of prayer is a powerful sign, one that shows the harmony which religions
can build together, based on personal relations and on the good will of those
responsible. This is seen, for example, in the tangible help that the
Islamic Leader has guaranteed to the Catholic community here on more than one
occasion, along with the wise counsel that, in a familial spirit, he shares
with that community. I wish also to highlight the good relations that
unite local Catholics to the Orthodox community in solid fraternity and daily
affection which are an example for all, as well as the warm friendship shared
with the Jewish community.
The
benefits of this harmony are felt throughout Azerbaijan, a country that
distinguishes itself for its welcome and hospitality, gifts which I have
experienced on this memorable day, one for which I am truly grateful.
There is here a desire to protect the great heritage of religions and, at
the same time, a pursuit of deeper and more fruitful openness. The
Catholic Church, for example, finds a place and lives in harmony among other
religions that have far more members, demonstrating concretely that it is not
opposition but cooperation that helps to build better and more peaceful
societies. Our being together at this place is also in continuity with
the many meetings that are held in Baku to promote dialogue and
multiculturalism. Opening the doors of welcome and integration means
opening the doors of each person’s heart and the doors of hope to everyone.
I am confident that this country, “the gateway between East and West”
(John Paul II, Address at the Welcome Ceremony, Baku, 22 May 2002), will always
cultivate its vocation to openness and encounter, the indispensable conditions
for building lasting bridges of peace and a future worthy of humanity.
The
fraternity and sharing that we seek to increase will not be appreciated by
those who want to highlight divisions, reignite tensions and profit from
opposition and differences; rather, fraternity and sharing are invoked and
longed for by those who desire the common good, and are above all pleasing to
God, the Compassionate and All Merciful, who wishes his sons and daughters in
the one human family to be ever more united among themselves and always in
dialogue with one another. A great poet, a son of this land, wrote: “If
you are human, mix with humans, because people go well with each other” (Nizami
Ganjavi, The Book of Alexander, I, On his own state of life and the passage of
time). Opening ourselves to others does not lead to impoverishment but rather
enrichment, because it enables us to be more human: to recognize ourselves as
participants in a greater collectivity and to understand our life as a gift for
others; to see as the goal, not our own interests, but rather the good of
humanity; to act with neither abstract idealism nor with interventionism, not
by harmful interference or forceful actions, but rather out of respect for the
dynamics of history, cultures and religious traditions.
Religions
have an enormous task: to accompany men and women looking for the meaning of
life, helping them to understand that the limited capacities of the human being
and the goods of this world must never become absolutes. Again, Nizami
wrote: “Do not base yourself solidly on your own strength, such that in heaven
you will find no resting place! The fruits of this world are not eternal;
do not adore that which perishes!” (Leylā and Majnūn, Death of Majnūn on the
tomb of Leylā). Religions are called to help us understand that the
centre of each person is outside of himself, that we are oriented towards the
Most High and towards the other who is our neighbour. In this way, the
vocation of human life is to set out towards the highest and truest love: this
alone is the culmination of every authentically religious aspiration.
For, as the poet says, “love is that which never mutates, love is that
which has no end” (ibid, The Despair of Majnūn).
Humanity
therefore needs religion if it is to reach its goal. Religion is a
compass that orients us to the good and steers us away from evil, which is
always crouching at the door of a person’s heart (cf. Gen 4:7).
Religions, therefore, have an educational task: to help bring out the
best in each person. We, as guides, have a great responsibility, in order
to offer authentic responses to men and women who are searching, who are often
lost among the swirling contradictions of our time. Indeed, today we
observe, on the one hand, the dominance of the nihilism of those who no longer
believe in anything except their own wellbeing, advantage and profit, of those
who throw life away, having become accustomed to the saying, “if God does not
exist then everything is permissible” (cf. F.M. Dostoyevsky, The Brothers
Karamazov, XI, 4.8.9); on the other hand, we see the growing emergence of rigid
and fundamentalist reactions on the part of those who, through violent words
and deeds, seek to impose extreme and radical attitudes which are furthest from
the living God.
Religions,
on the contrary, which help to discern the good and put it into practice
through deeds, prayer and diligent cultivation of the inner life, are called to
build a culture of encounter and peace, based on patience, understanding, and
humble, tangible steps. This is the way a humane society is best served.
For its part, society must always overcome the temptation to take
advantage of religious factors: religions must never be instrumentalized, nor
can they ever lend support to, or approve of, conflicts and
disagreements.
There is,
furthermore, a fruitfulness deriving from the virtuous rapport between society
and religions, that respectful alliance which needs to be built up and
protected, and which I would like to evoke with an image dear to this country.
I refer to the precious artistic windows that have been here for
centuries, crafted simply out of wood and tinted glass (Shebeke). When
they are made using traditional methods, there is a peculiar characteristic:
neither glue nor nails are used, but the wood and the glass are set into each
other through time-consuming and meticulous effort. Thus, the wood
supports the glass and the glass lets in the light. In the same way, it
is the task of every civil society to support religion, which allows a light to
shine through, indispensable for living. In order for this to happen, an
effective and authentic freedom must be guaranteed. Artificial kinds of
“glue” cannot be used, which bind people to believe, imposing on them a
determined belief system and depriving them of the freedom to choose; nor is
there a need for the external “nails” of worldly concerns, of the yearning for
power and money. For God cannot be used for personal interests and
selfish ends; he cannot be used to justify any form of fundamentalism,
imperialism or colonialism. From this highly symbolic place, a heartfelt
cry rises up once again: no more violence in the name of God! May his
most holy Name be adored, not profaned or bartered as a commodity through forms
of hatred and human opposition.
We honour,
rather, the divine mercy that is given to us, through assiduous prayer and real
dialogue, “a necessary condition for peace in the world… a duty for Christians
as well as other religious communities” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii
Gaudium, 250). Prayer and dialogue are profoundly interconnected: they
flow from an openness of heart and extend to the good of others, thus enriching
and reinforcing each other. The Catholic Church, in continuity with the
Second Vatican Council, heartily “exhorts her sons and daughters, that through
dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out
with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they
recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well
as the socio-cultural values found among these men and women (SECOND VATICAN
ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Nostra Aetate, 2). This is not an accommodating
“facile syncretism”, nor a “diplomatic openness which says yes to everything in
order to avoid problems” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 251), but
rather a path of dialogue with others and a path of prayer for all: these are
our means “of turning spears into pruning hooks” (cf. Is 2:4), to give rise to
love where there is hatred, and forgiveness where there is offence, of never
growing weary of imploring and tracing the ways of peace.
A true
peace, founded on mutual respect, encounter and sharing, on the will to go
beyond prejudices and past wrongs, on the rejection of double standards and
self-interests; a lasting peace, animated by the courage to overcome barriers,
to eradicate poverty and injustice, to denounce and put an end to the
proliferation of weapons and immoral profiteering on the backs of others.
The blood of far too many people cries out to God from the earth, our
common home (cf. Gen 4:10). Today, we are challenged to give a response
that can no longer be put off: to build together a future of peace; now is not
the time for violent or abrupt solutions, but rather an urgent moment to engage
in patient processes of reconciliation. The real question of our time is
not how to advance our own causes, but what proposals for life are we offering
to future generations; how to leave them a better world than the one we have
received. God, and history itself, will ask us if we have spent ourselves
pursuing peace; the younger generations, who dream of a different future,
pointedly direct this question to us.
In this
night of conflict that we are currently enduring, may religions be a dawn of
peace, seeds of rebirth amid the devastation of death, echoes of dialogue
resounding unceasingly, paths to encounter and reconciliation reaching even
those places where official mediation efforts seem not to have borne fruit.
Particularly in this beloved Caucasus region, which I have very much
wished to visit and to which I have come as a pilgrim of peace, may religions
be active agents working to overcome the tragedies of the past and the tensions
of the present. May the inestimable richness of these countries be known
and valued: the treasures old and ever new of the wisdom, culture and religious
sensibility of the people of the Caucasus, are a tremendous resource for the
future of the region and especially for European culture; they are goods which
we cannot renounce.
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