VATICAN (CNS): Wars are destroying the world and religious leaders must join together to urge their governments to “stop while there is still time,” Pope Francis said.
“If others continue to make war, together we can work for peace,” the pope said in a September 24 message to religious leaders gathered in Paris for the closing ceremony of the international “Imagining Peace” meeting organised by the Community of Sant’Egidio.
With the leaders gathered in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, the pope noted how the church “after the tragic fire, is about to reopen its doors for prayer. How much we need to pray for peace! The risk that the many conflicts in our world, rather than ceasing, will dangerously spread, is all too real.”
The Sant’Egidio Community has sponsored an interreligious meeting for peace each year since Pope St. John Paul II held the first on in Assisi, Italy, in 1986. Pope Francis quoted his predecessor’s final talk that day, which highlighted “the intrinsic link between an authentic religious attitude and the great good of peace.”
