(Simona Mengascini, SIR correspondent in Cyprus) – The meeting "Religions and Cultures" promoted by the Sant’Egidio community began yesterday in Cyprus. The Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow and former John Paul II’s secretary, underlying the scope and the perspectives of the meeting pointed out that "John Paul II is still walking with us in the spirit of Assisi." Hence the invitation: "Next year, come to Krakow, the city he has loved so much!" The Cardinal recalled that 2009 will mark the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, which started with the invasion of Poland, and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The participants attending the meeting have also received, through Cardinal Bertone’s message, the greetings of Benedict XVI who said "peace is a gift" to be achieved "only through dialogue." Then Chrysostomos, the Orthodox Patriarch Archbishop of Cyprus, asked for the attendees’ "full commitment" to achieve "true peace" and "restore justice and freedom" on "our island." Some forty religious leaders arrived to Cyprus, the only European country to be still divided by a wall and partially occupied. They will work together in this "peace factory," said Andrea Riccardi, "the same factory we have been working in for twenty two years."
