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Horror, grief and condemnation for the massacre in the school at Beslan continue to be expressed throughout Europe. Numerous prayer meetings and public demonstrations have been held to call for an end to terrorism, which continues, unfortunately, to cause death and suffering. The Catholic Churches, together with the other Christian Churches and the other religions, are making efforts to keep dialogue alive because, in spite of the tragedies and the many tensions inflamed, it remains the main road to be pursued to ensure than hope does not die. It’s a difficult but not impossible and hence obligatory road, as John Paul II insists. Here are some more statements by church leaders to add to those quoted in our previous number. Comece “In recent days, Russian television has been transmitting harrowing images of the school in Beslan, evidently filmed by the kidnappers themselves. They are scenes that have profoundly shocked me: they show bombs being attached to the goalposts of the basketball pitch and terrorized mothers with their children lying on the floor of the gym. There can be no justification, not the slightest, when people deliberately try to transform a place of sport, contest and learning into a place of death. My thoughts go the victims and their families. I also think of the survivors; the spiritual injuries caused by what they have experienced will remain with them throughout life. May God have mercy on all of them”. Monsignor Josef Homeyer, bishop emeritus of Hildesheim, president of COMECE, Committee of the Episcopates of the European Community Slovenia “The Slovene Church is united in prayer with the population and families struck by this horrendous tragedy. Prayer vigils are being held in many churches, and lighted candles placed in windows to invoke the gift of peace on this martyred land and on the whole of humanity. The world has become small and news like this of the school in Beslan cannot but strike at our heart”. The words are those of the spokesman of the Slovene Bishops’ Conference, Monsignor Andrej Saje who also recalls that “a mass was celebrated in the mountains on 8 September, on the occasion of the feast of the Birth of the Virgin Mary, at which prayers were said for the victims of the massacre and their families”. “At this time he concludes we underline the need for inter-religious dialogue to help ensure that the world may enjoy a time of peace and prosperity”. Turkey The Beslan school massacre is “an event that has shocked everyone here in Turkey, Christians and Moslems alike. On 7 September the various political and religious authorities present in the country went to the Russian Consulate in Istanbul to express their condolences”, commented the spokesman of the Turkish Bishops’ Conference, Monsignor Georges Marovitch. “We in the Catholic Church he continued express our strong condemnation of this massacre of the innocents and appeal for dialogue and not force of arms and violence to triumph. We pray for all those who have been touched by such a tragedy”. Germany The bishop of Essen, Monsignor Felix Genn, has also commented on the school-siege in Ossetia and its tragic aftermath: “We pray to the Lord to free our world of catastrophes like the one that occurred in the Caucasian town of Beslan”, he said during a homily given in the basilica of Essen-Werden on 6 September, on the occasion of the ancient feast of St. Ludger. “We have a need for men and women full of Jesus, who radiate his love, not for their own will but in the consciousness of how much the world needs these things. Last week’s events concluded Bishop Genn have made the cry for liberation resound even more strongly”.
