An immediate end to the war and the provision of emergency aid to the civilian populations of Iraq: that is the essence of the appeal made on 9 April by the Swiss bishops on their retreat in Wislikofen in preparation for Easter. Recalling the 40th anniversary of the publication of John XXIII’s encyclical “Pacem in Terris”, the bishops express “solidarity with the millions of people who are victims of the atrocities being committed by the fighting”. “Today tragically guns have replaced dialogue. We ask for a cessation of hostilities and the entry onto the scene of the UNO in the economic and political reconstruction of Iraq”. No less urgent is the need “to get emergency aid to the populations who have been reduced to the most abject despair. It is essential that States furnish the necessary financial and technical resources. The dignity of our Western countries depends on it”. At the same time the Swiss bishops urged the ecclesial communities to “support in concrete terms initiatives of solidarity, in particular Caritas, which, together with other aid organizations, is present on the spot”. The retreat was led by the director of the Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem, Father Jean-Michel Poffet, and focused on apostolic zeal and on the Letter to the Thessalonians. Particularly welcome was the courtesy call paid by Orthodox Metropolitan Philaret of Minsk (Belarus), a leading figure in ecumenical dialogue, who was in transit through Switzerland.
