22 October 2007
At an inter-religious meeting in Naples, Pope Benedict has said religion must never be used to justify violence. He spoke on Sunday to rabbis, ayatollahs, priests and patriarchs from around the world who gathered in the southern Italian city. The clerics are attending a three-day conference on the role of religion and culture in creating a violence-free world. The Pope told the leaders that they were called on to work for peace and reconciliation among peoples. “In a world wounded by conflicts, where violence is justified in God's name, it is important to repeat that religion can never become a vehicle of hatred, it can never be used in God's name to justify violence,'' Benedict said, adding: “On the contrary, religions can and must offer precious resources to build a peaceful humanity, because they speak about peace in the heart of man.''
The Pope met with a number of religious leaders including the Israeli Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona Metzger, Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, the second largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, and Ayatollah Sayed Mousavi Bojnourdi, head of an Islamic study center in Iran. Other religious leaders attending the meeting included; the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians; the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams; the head of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Samuel Kobia; as well as Buddhist, Shinto, Hindu and Zoroastrian representatives.
