Οικουμενιστική προσευχή υπέρ της ειρήνης, τελέστηκε την Πέμπτη 7 Οκτωβρίου 2021, στον προαύλιο χώρο του Κολοσσαίου στη Ρώμη.
Η πρωτοβουλία εντάσσεται
στη Συνάντηση θρησκειών και πολιτισμών που διοργανώθηκε στην Ρώμη από την
Οικουμενιστική Κοινότητα του Sant’ Egidio. (Πανθρησκειακή συνάντηση στο Βατικανό για το Περιβάλλον
με συμμετοχή του Οικουμενικού Πατριάρχου)
…………………………………………
Concluding
ceremony of the Prayer for Peace Meeting organized by the St. Egidio Community:
"Peoples as Brothers, Future Earth. Religions and Cultures in Dialogue"
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
AT THE MEETING OF RELIGIONS FOR PEACE
"PEOPLES AS BROTHERS AND SISTERS, FUTURE EARTH.
RELIGIONS AND
CULTURES IN DIALOGUE"
Piazza del
Colosseo
Thursday, 7 October 2021
__________________________________
Dear brothers and
sisters!
I greet all of
you – heads of Churches, political authorities and representatives of the great
world religions – and I thank you for your presence. It is good that we have
gathered here, carrying in our own hearts and in the heart of Rome the faces of
those entrusted to our care. Above all, it is important to pray and share,
clearly and sincerely, our deep concern for the present and future of the
world. Many, many believers have come together in these days to show how prayer
is that quiet source of strength which brings peace and disarms hate-filled
hearts. In the various meetings, we shared our conviction that a change is
needed in relationships between peoples, and between peoples and the earth.
That is why, here today, together we dream of peoples as brothers and
sisters and a future earth.
Peoples as
brothers and sisters. We proclaim this against the backdrop of the Colosseum.
Long ago, this amphitheatre was the site of brutal mass entertainment: fights
between men or between men and beasts. Spectacles of fratricide, deadly games
played at the cost of human lives. Today, we too can be spectators of violence
and war, of brothers killing brothers, like games we watch from a safe
distance, indifferent, certain that they will never affect us. The suffering of
others scarcely troubles us. Not even the sufferings of victims of war,
migrants, young boys and girls trapped in conflicts and robbed of the carefree
games of childhood. The lives of peoples and young children are not playthings.
We may not be indifferent onlookers. On the contrary, we need to empathize with
those who share our humanity, its aspirations, its struggles and its frailties.
We need to realize, “All of this affects me, it could have happened here too,
even to me”. Today, in a globalized society that sensationalizes suffering, yet
remains incapable of sympathizing with it, we need to “construct
compassion”. We need to listen to others, make their sufferings our own and
look into their faces. This takes real courage: the courage of compassion,
a courage that goes beyond complacency, beyond the mindset of “it doesn’t
concern me” and “it has nothing to do with my life”. We cannot allow
the lives of entire peoples to become mere pawns in a game of power. The life
of peoples is not part of a game: it is something serious and of concern to
everyone. The life of peoples cannot be subject to the interests of a few, or
prey to sectarian and nationalistic fervour.
War plays games
with human lives. So does violence and the bane of a burgeoning arms trade,
often moving in the shadows, fed by underground streams of money. I can only
reiterate that “war is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful
capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil” (Fratelli Tutti, 261). We cannot continue to
accept wars with the detachment with which we watch the evening news, but
rather make an effort to see them through the eyes of the peoples involved. Two
years ago in Abu Dhabi, along with my dear brother, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar,
present here, we appealed to human fraternity for the sake of peace. We spoke
“in the name of peoples who have lost their security, peace and the possibility
of living together, becoming victims of destruction, calamity and war” (Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and
Living Together, 4 February 2019). As representatives of different
religious traditions, all of us are called to resist the lure of worldly power,
to be the voice of the voiceless, the support of the suffering, advocates of
the oppressed and victims of hatred, people discarded by men and women on
earth, yet precious in the sight of the One who dwells in heaven. Today they
are fearful, because in all too many parts of the world, rather than dialogue
and cooperation prevailing, military confrontation is once again becoming the
decisive means for imposing one’s own ends.
Consequently, I
would repeat my words in Abu Dhabi about the urgent task of religions “in this
delicate historical situation: to demilitarize the human heart” (Address at the Interreligious Meeting, 4
February 2019). Dear brothers and sisters, as believers it is our
responsibility to help eradicate hatred from human hearts and to condemn every
form of violence. Let us unambiguously urge that arms be set aside and military
spending reduced, in order to provide for humanitarian needs, and that
instruments of death be turned into instruments of life. May ours not be empty
words, but insistent appeals for the welfare of our brothers and sisters,
opposing war and death in the name of the One who is peace and life. Fewer arms
and more food, less hypocrisy and more transparency, more vaccines distributed
fairly and fewer weapons marketed indiscriminately. Our times demand that we be
the voice of all those believers, ordinary people, defenceless and weary of
violence, so that those who have responsibility for the common good will commit
themselves not only to condemn wars and terrorism, but also to create the
conditions to prevent them from flaring up.
If peoples are to
remain brothers and sisters, prayers must rise unceasingly to heaven, and one
single word constantly echo on earth. That word is peace. Saint John Paul
II dreamed of a common journey of believers, starting from the Assisi meeting
and advancing towards the future. Dear friends, we are making that journey,
each with his or her own religious identity, to cultivate peace in the name of
God and to acknowledge that we are brothers and sisters. Pope John Paul II
raised this challenge when he said, “Peace awaits its prophets. Peace awaits
its builders” (Address to the Representatives of the Christian Churches and
Ecclesial Communities and of the World Religions, 27 October 1986). To some
this seemed empty optimism. Over the years, however, sharing and forms of
dialogue between different religious worlds have increased, thus creating paths
to peace. This is the true way forward. If there are those who work to foment
division and conflict, we ourselves believe in the importance of journeying
together for peace: with one another, and never again against one another.
Brothers and
sisters, ours is a journey that demands a constant purification of the heart.
Francis of Assisi asked his followers to see others as “brothers and sisters,
for they were created by the one Creator”. He told them: “The peace that you
proclaim with your lips, you should possess even more abundantly in your
hearts” (The Legend of the Three Companions, XIV, 5: FF 1469). Peace is not
primarily an agreement to be negotiated or a value to be celebrated, but mostly
an attitude of the heart. It is born of justice; it grows in fraternity and it
flourishes in gratuitousness. It summons us to “serve the truth and declare
what is evil when it is evil, without fear or pretence, even and especially
when it is committed by those who profess to follow the same creed as us” (Message to the Participants in the G20 Interfaith
Forum 2021, 7 September 2021). For the sake of peace, please, in
every religious tradition let us defuse the temptation to fundamentalism and
every tendency to view a brother or sister as an enemy. If there are those in
the grip of hostility, factions and partisan games, we ourselves repeat the
words of the Imam Ali: “There are two types of people: your brothers and
sisters in faith, and those who are your fellow human beings”. There is no
other distinction.
Peoples as
brothers and sisters who dream of peace. Today the dream of peace is linked to
another dream, that of the future earth. This is a commitment to care for
creation, for the common home that we will leave to the young who will come
after us. By cultivating a contemplative and non-predatory approach, the
religions are called to listen to the groans of mother earth, which suffers
violence. My dear brother, Patriarch Bartholomew, present here, has helped us
to realize that “to commit a crime against the natural world is a sin against
ourselves and a sin against God” (Address in Saint Barbara, 8 November 1997,
cited in the Encyclical Laudato Si’, 8).
Let us remember
what the pandemic has shown us, namely that we cannot remain healthy in a world
that is sick. In recent times, many people have contracted the sickness of
forgetfulness, forgetfulness of God and of our brothers and sisters. This has
led to unbridled individualism and the desire for self-sufficiency, which has
overflowed in insatiable greed. The earth we inhabit bears the scars of this,
while the air we breathe is rich in toxins but poor in solidarity. We have thus
poured the pollution of our hearts upon creation. In this climate of
deterioration, it is encouraging to think that the same concerns and
commitments are increasingly becoming the shared patrimony of many religions.
Prayer and action can change the course of history. Brothers and sisters, be
courageous! We have before us a vision, the same vision shared by so many young
people and men and women of good will: the earth as a common home, in which
peoples dwell as brothers and sisters. Yes, let us dream of religions as
sisters and peoples as brothers! Sister religions to help peoples be brothers
and sisters living in peace, reconciled stewards of creation, our common home. Thank
you.
3 σχόλια:
Πώς μας ανέχεται ο Κύριος ακόμα, απορώ... Δόξα τη Μακροθυμία σου Κύριε!!!
Κάτσε κ.Στέλιο μου γιατί δεν κατάλαβα.
Ο Θεός δεν θα έπρεπε να μας ανέχεται λόγω του ότι ο Πατριάρχης συμπροσευχήθηκε με τον Πάπα ;
Οι Εκκλησιαστικές ανομίες που κάνει ο Πατριάρχης Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, είναι ανεκτές από τους περισσότερους άλλους επισκόπους της Ορθόδοξης Εκκλησίας στην Κωνσταντινούπολη και στην Ελλάδα (διότι δεν αντιδρούν δημόσια).
Συνεπώς και εκείνοι οι επίσκοποι, είναι συνένοχοι με όσα αντι-εκκλησιαστικά κάνει ο Πατριάρχης Κωνσταντινουπόλεως.
Το διεθνές πολιτικό-οικονομικό σύστημα, προωθεί τον Πάπα Ρώμης σαν τον απόλυτο και μοναδικό αρχηγό όλων των Χριστιανών της γης.
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