A choral response” “

The appeal launched by John Paul II to fast and pray for peace on Ash Wednesday, 5 March, has been favourably received all over the world. The Episcopal Conferences of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France have also given their support to the Pope’s invitation, together with other confessions and associations. France. Pray and fast for peace and for the rejection of any “logic of war”: that’s the appeal of the national Council of solidarity contained in a message published by the French Episcopal Conference on 5 March. “We implore God – says the appeal – for the conversion of hearts and inner enlightenment so that the right decisions may be taken to solve, in a proper and peaceful way, the questions that are hindering the journey of humanity at this time”. In their message, the Catholic organizations invite the Churches to live the period of Lent “in communion with the peoples who are the victims of war and in solidarity with the populations counting on our aid”. Germany. Recalling the words of John Paul II, the German bishops have “gladly” embraced the Pope’s invitation to fast and pray, and on 28 February issued an appeal to the faithful to participate in the initiative, signed by Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the Episcopal Conference. Recalling the Pope’s exhortation to entrust ourselves to the help of “Mary, mother of God, Queen of peace”, the bishops recommended “the prayer of the rosary for peace in families and in parishes, and in particular in the Marian sanctuaries”. Switzerland. “Reinforcing the bonds of peace in Switzerland and in the world”: that’s the theme adopted by the Federation of the Protestant Churches, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Federation of the Jewish Communities and the Coordination of the Islamic Communities, in promoting an interreligious celebration in Bern on 5 March. In a joint communiqué the Churches and religious communities declared themselves “ready to contribute to the maintenance of religious peace and to reinforce dialogue and the bonds of peace that unite them”. “There are no justifications for a war”, they declared. Without directly citing the threats of a military intervention in Iraq, the Churches and the religions present in Switzerland emphasized “the importance of reciprocal respect, dialogue and joint efforts for peace” and pledged to “do their utmost to ensure that toleration between the religions be not diminished”. During the celebration in the Swiss capital, attended by many religious and political personalities, a joint declaration and an appeal of the Churches for peace were read out. Austria. In an appeal dated 3 March, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, president of the Austrian Episcopal Conference and archbishop of Vienna, invited Austrian Catholics to join in fasting and prayer. In an editorial published in “Thema kirche”, the magazine of the archdiocese of Vienna, Schönborn writes that the Pope’s example gives us “greater encouragement to trust in the fact that an evil regime and terrorism may be vanquished by weapons other than those of war”. “It’s all too clear – adds the Cardinal – that terrorism cannot be defeated merely by armed retaliation; it’s enough to think of the sickening spiral of violence and retaliation in the Holy Land”. “Will the conflict in Iraq – Schönborn asks – become the cause of an unpredictable conflict between the Western world and the Islamic world, or even a war between Islam and Christianity? How will Europe find an common line? Or will the current conflict lacerate Europe?”. Also in Austria, the movement of Austrian Catholic women (Kfb) promoted the traditional “Day of fasting in families” on 5 March, accompanied by the slogan “Sharing grows”. Inaugurated in 1958, the campaign, aimed at tackling famine in the world, began on Ash Wednesday, with a frugal community repast in the dioceses of Feldkirch and Innsbruck.