Two dates and an ancient dream

The 25th edition of the world prayer meeting for peace “Bound to Live Together” closed in Munich on September 13. The event was promoted by the Community of Sant’Egidio in cooperation with the local archdiocese, headed by Cardinal Reinhard Marx. In the closing celebration held in the famous Marienplatz, in the historical centre of the city, world religious leaders made a joint appeal for peace. Three intense days of forums, workshops, round tables and panel lectures, bound together by the red thread of coexistence. The political world was also present, notably with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Christian Wulff, Alpha Condé, president of the Republic of Guinea, Danilo Türk, president of the Republic of Slovenia, along with the ministers of world countries and the leaders of world religions and faith traditions. Many voices that became one in the final statement, which this year bears special relevance, as it marks the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre and the 25th edition of the inter-religious meeting promoted in Assisi by John Paul II (October 27 1986). The weapon of dialogue. “There is no future in war! There is no alternative to dialogue. Dialogue is a simple weapon, available to everyone. With dialogue we shall build a new decade and a century of peace. Let us all become artisans of peace. Yes, may God grant the world the wonderful gift of peace”. This message of peace echoed across Marienplatz. “The temptation to withdraw into oneself and use religions to separate from each other is powerful. This temptation is worsened by the global economy crisis. The world sometimes seems to be unaware of its limits. It is often more attracted by what divides than by friendliness for the other; it pays more attention to the motives of the ego than to the common good. In many areas of the world violence and lack of meaning are growing. We need a turning point!” The religious leaders go on: “We must therefore look up, open up to the future, and become capable of globalizing justice. We need to raise the issue of peace once again, with determination and in all its dimensions. Indeed, we are bound to live together and we are all responsible for the art of coexistence. Dialogue proves today to be the most intelligent and peaceful weapon. It is the response to the preachers of terror, who even use religious words to spread hatred and divide the world. Nothing is lost with dialogue”. “It is time to change. The world needs more hope and more peace. We can learn again to live not one against the other, but one with the other. We are aware of the responsibilities of religions in endangering peace when they did not turn and look upwards. Whoever uses the name of God to hate the other and kill is cursing the Holy Name of God”.Stronger than before. “From Munich an invocation for peace rises, a hymn to life rises” said Andrea Riccardi in his remarks for the closing ceremony of the meeting. Addressing the religious leaders gathered in Marienplatz he continued: “We are stronger and more hopeful that before, because we did not yield to hopelessness and pessimism. In 1938 the Munich Conference marked the yielding of European governments to the arrogant power of National Socialism”, but today “we heard not the heavy steps of soldiers, but the light steps of the seekers of God and pilgrims of peace. Munich has become the happy capital of the spirit”. “This strength will extinguish the fire of war. It will support us when we have to bring peace where there is hatred, misunderstanding, and indifference”. He declared: “Let us not rest until there is peace all around us and all over the world”. Card. Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich, reiterates the same appeal: “We are all responsible for peace, and for the future of the world. Therefore, we must not – and indeed will not – spare ourselves. Peace is worthy of whichever commitment! We cannot shy away from the future out of fear, we do not want to! Rather, we wish to look for ways to make progress. Particularly, religions make an important contribution in guiding humanity towards a better future”. He concluded: “We accept this mission, and we commit ourselves to taking the pathway of comprehension and reconciliation”.The next year in Sarajevo. The meeting closed with the announcement of the venue of the next World Meeting, due to take place in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia- Herzegovina. In fact, next year recurs the 20th anniversary of the siege of the city, as underlined by the Great Mufti Mustafa Ceric, and by the Catholic bishop Msgr. Pero Sudar. “Sarajevo -they said- is the city of the old-dated coexistence of Jews, Christians and Muslims. We have always been living side by side. When the war broke out, this no longer seemed possible”. Sarajevo, Ceric added, “is the first Jerusalem of Europe, and the second Jerusalem of the world”. Today, after the days in Munich, “we are even more convinced that the ancient dream of coexistence is still possible”. The Bosniac capital, during the war of the 1990s, experienced the longest siege in modern history, which lasted from April 1992, to February 1996, with thousands of deaths.