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World religious leaders, atheists talk peace in Italy
By PATERNO ESMAQUEL II, GMA News
In a historic event that included four atheist intellectuals, Pope Benedict XVI gathered world religious leaders and non-believers alike 25 years after his predecessor organized the first meeting of its kind in Italy. It was, for Benedict XVI, “a sign of friendship and fraternity," a renewal of the unprecedented meeting that the late Blessed John Paul II led on October 27, 1986. “In a certain sense, this gathering is representative of the billions of men and women throughout our world who are actively engaged in promoting justice and peace," said Benedict XVI on Friday, describing what the Vatican called a “day of reflection, dialogue, and prayer for peace and justice in the world" in the Italian town of Assisi. The Vatican held the Assisi meeting Thursday with the theme “Pilgrims of Truth, Pilgrims of Peace." It was the first time that four atheists – French psychoanalyst and philosopher Julia Kristeva, Italian philosopher Remo Bodei, Mexican philosopher Guillermo Hurtado, and Austrian economist Walter Baier – joined world religious leaders in such a meeting. The Assisi event included the following representatives of various world religions:
His Holiness Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople;
Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, Primate of the Anglican Communion;
Archbishop Norvan Zakarian, Primate of the Armenian Diocese of France;
Rev. Olav Fyske Tveit, secretary general of the World Council of Churches;
Rabbi David Rosen, representative of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel;
Wande Abimbola, spokesperson for the Yoruba faith;
Acharya Shri Shrivatsa Goswami, representative for Hinduism;
Ja-Seung, president of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism; and
Kyai Haji Hasyom Muzadi, secretary general of the International Conference of Islamic Schools “Meetings of this sort are necessarily exceptional and infrequent, yet they are a vivid expression of the fact that every day, throughout our world, people of different religious traditions live and work together in harmony," said Benedict XVI. Pope: No to violence due to religion Religions should advocate peace, not violence, the Pope also said in his address during the meeting in the hometown of St. Francis of Assisi, a 13th-century saint who wrote the popular Prayer for Peace. “We know that terrorism is often religiously motivated and that the specifically religious character of the attacks is proposed as a justification for the reckless cruelty," Benedict XVI noted. Islamic extremists, for example, interpret the religious concept of jihad as “holy war" to justify terrorist attacks. In the Philippines alone, Muslim youth have sought to debunk this misconception that has led to biases against them (Watch video below). “The religious delegates who were assembled in Assisi in 1986 wanted to say, and we now repeat it emphatically and firmly: this is not the true nature of religion. It is the antithesis of religion and contributes to its destruction," Benedict XVI said. The 84-year-old theologian, however, also took notice of the violent acts that Christians themselves have perpetrated throughout history. “We acknowledge it with great shame," he said. “But it is utterly clear that this was an abuse of the Christian faith, one that evidently contradicts its true nature. The God in whom we Christians believe is the Creator and Father of all, and from Him all people are brothers and sisters and form one single family." Benedict XVI, on the other hand, also pointed out a kind of violence that stems from not believing in God. “The denial of God has led to much cruelty and to a degree of violence that knows no bounds, which only becomes possible when man no longer recognizes any criterion or any judge above himself, now having only himself to take as a criterion," he said. “The horrors of the concentration camps reveal with utter clarity the consequences of God's absence," the Pope explained. In relation to the loss of belief in God, he also expressed concern over “the decline of man" along with a change in the “spiritual climate." “The worship of mammon, possessions and power is proving to be a counter-religion, in which it is no longer man who counts but only personal advantage," the Pope added. Atheists speak The Assisi meeting augured well for at least two of the invited atheists. “For the first time, homo sapiens is capable of destroying the earth and himself in the name of his beliefs, religions or ideologies," philosopher Julia Kristeva said. “The diversity of our meeting here in Assisi shows that this hypothesis of destruction is not the only possible one." [See story here.] For his part, Mexican philosopher Guillermo Hurtado pledged to keep discussion lines open even after the Assisi event, according to a report by the Catholic News Service. “We, humanists in dialogue with believers, commit ourselves together with all men and women of good will to building a new world in which respect for the dignity of each and every person … is the foundation for life in society," he said. A group of atheists, however, took offense at the Pope’s statement that the absence of God could lead to violence. “Again and again, the Pope reveals himself as an ‘atheophobe,’" said Raffaele Carcano, head of the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics, a member-organization of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). “His attacks against atheists, and his pretension to acquire agnostics, are a clear attempt to demonize the unbelief that’s increasingly spreading throughout the world, as acknowledged by the clearly worried Pope himself," Carcano said, based on IHEU’s English translation of his original statement in Italian. “We remind Benedict XVI," Carcano said, "that no war was ever fought in the name of atheism, and countries with the highest number of atheists are also those where the crime rate is lower." “Adolf Hitler believed in God, while atheists were persecuted by the Nazi regime," he noted. - KBK, GMA News
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