Pope Francis said on Tuesday
that God's name can never be used to justify violence, as he
attended a day of prayer for peace with representatives of other
faiths in the central Italian city of Assisi.
During Tuesday's event, the 30th anniversary of the first
Assisi interreligious meeting for peace among peoples, Francis
urged world leaders to not tire of seeking pathways to peace.
"The name of God can never justify violence. Only peace is
holy, and not war!," Francis said. "We are called to free
ourselves from the heavy burdens of diffidence, fundamentalism
and hate. Let believers be peace makers".
The gathering for peace came on the same day that a UN aid
convoy was hit by an airstrike in Syria, killing about 20
people, escalating tensions and putting a week-old ceasefire at
risk. The ceasefire is the latest attempt to halt a war that is
now in its sixth year and has led to the deaths of hundreds of
thousands.
After arriving in Assisi, Francis went to the Holy Convent,
where he greeted several senior religious leaders including
Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople,
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Rome Chief Rabbi Riccardo
Di Segni, and Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the Community of
Sant'Egidio that is the driving force of the day of
interreligious prayer.
The pontiff also attended a lunch with faith leaders, to
which 25 refugees were invited as special guests, including 12
from war and conflict zones like Syria and Nigeria.
He warned on Tuesday of "the great malady of our time:
indifference." He said it was a "virus that paralyses, makes
inert and insensitive, a disease that undermines the very centre
of religiousness, generating a new, very sad paganism: the
paganism of indifference".
He said "we cannot remain indifferent. Today the world has
an ardent thirst for peace".
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