It is hard to believe that it has been 25 years since the first Day of Prayer for Peace, held Oct. 27, 1986. As you may recall Pope John Paul II attended this service and came up against criticism from some quarters that it ran the risk of “syncretism,” a religious outlook that mixes different doctrines in which everything appears on the same level. The first Day of Prayer for Peace was held in Italy, in the city of Assisi. There were over 160 religious leaders spending the day in fasting and prayer for peace in the world. There were 32 Christian religious organizations and 11 non-Christian world religions present that day. It was attended by Muslim and Jewish leaders and heads of many other religions, including the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists and the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury.
This first gathering focused on the need for peace after the end of the Cold War. At that time, the participants called for all religions to stand together in a united voice, while respecting the diversity of the other without attempting conversion or false accommodation, and to proclaim that peace is both necessary and attainable. While certainly not attempting to make any comparisons among the religions of the world, Assisi attempted to accentuate the universal desire for peace and stability among all people of faith.
In 1993, Pope John Paul II repeated the Day of Prayer to pray for an end to the war in Bosnia. Again in 2002, Pope John Paul II invited the leaders of the world religions to come to Assisi to join in prayer for peace.
This meeting was convoked in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks as well as the war in Afghanistan and tensions in Pakistan, India and elsewhere at that time. Pope John Paul said he particularly hoped to bring Christians and Muslims together to emphasize that religion must never be the reason for hatred and violence. Pope John Paul said that religious leaders need to do their part to fend off “the dark clouds of terrorism, hatred and armed conflict.”
You may recall that back in January, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he was calling together the leaders of the world religions in Assisi on Oct. 25, 2011, to “solemnly renew the commitment of believers of every religion to live their own religious faith in the service of the cause of peace.” He made that announcement just hours after a bomb killed a number of people in a Coptic Christian church in Egypt. Pope Benedict said during the announcement that “humanity cannot be allowed to become accustomed to discrimination, injustices and religious intolerance, which today strike Christians in a particular way. Once again, I make a pressing appeal to Christians in troubled areas not to give in to discouragement and resignation.”
Now just two weeks before this historic gathering of prayer for peace in Assisi, there are signs that the persecution against Coptic Christians in Egypt is actually increasing. At a peaceful march earlier this week outside a Coptic church in Egypt where Christians were calling for equal rights in the new nation that is emerging, violence broke out against them. Many have been killed and there are reports of more than 150 people injured. The march turned violent when about 10,000 marchers were attacked by stone-throwing mobs. Some of the Coptic Christians began to flee and gun shots rang out.
I think it is most fitting that these historic prayer gatherings of the world religious leaders take place in Assisi. St. Francis of Assisi was a man of peace, who loved all his brothers and sisters in the world. Early documents, recorded by his faithful followers, say that his ecumenical view found in his words included, “all peoples, races, tribes and tongues, all nations and all peoples everywhere on earth” to “love the Lord God” and to recognize that all is gift from the most gracious God “who is the fullness of good, all good, every good, the true and supreme good, Who alone is good!” With the tensions playing out among Christians and Muslims in some parts of the world, Francis again stands as a model of tolerance. He encouraged his brothers to “live spiritually” among Muslims by not engaging in “arguments and disputes” but by subjecting themselves “to every human creature for God’s sake” and by announcing the word of God only when “they see it pleases the Lord.”
May the gathering in Assisi later this month help to bring greater peace in our world, especially among Jews, Muslims and Christians. Let us remember St. Francis’ most common greeting and pray it for all our brothers and sisters in the world: “May the Lord give you peace.”
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