Pope asks young people to be messengers of peace

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Pope Benedict XVI asked a group of young people from different religious traditions to be messengers and witnesses of peace, tolerance and dialogue.

Speaking Nov. 8 during his weekly general audience, the pope offered special greetings to 90 young people from 29 countries at the end of their five-day conference on dialogue and peacemaking. The young people, representing 13 religions, had met in Assisi, Italy, at the invitation of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Pope Benedict told the young people that the world needs prayers for peace. "Genuine prayer transforms hearts, opens us to dialogue, understanding and reconciliation," he said. "It breaks down the walls erected by violence, hatred and revenge." The pope asked the young people to return to their own religious communities "as witnesses to the spirit of Assisi, messengers of the peace which is God's gracious gift and living signs of hope for our world." Zeynep Ozbek, 24, a Muslim participant from Istanbul, Turkey, said she thought it was important for the Vatican to convoke young people to discuss faith and peacemaking because "young people are more open to different ideas, to differences, and they have more hope for the future." Ozbek and three other Muslim participants at the Assisi meeting are studying Christianity and dialogue at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University. Their studies are supported by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. French Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the council, told the young people that a willingness to dialogue is a sign of spiritual maturity. Ozbek told Catholic News Service she agreed with the cardinal: "I think being spiritually mature means being at peace with yourself, your faith and your God. If you do not have a good relationship with God, you cannot be at peace with others." The fact that the conference left ample time for prayer was important, she said. "The spiritual side of our religions gives us common ground," she added. "Peace and justice are the basic principles of all religions." While almost half of the participants were Catholics or other Christians, the conference also included 11 Muslims. Ozbek said some of them were hesitant to accept the Vatican's invitation after Pope Benedict's remarks about Islam in Germany. In the German speech, the pope quoted a medieval emperor's statement that the founder of Islam, the prophet Mohammed, had brought "things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith." The pope later clarified that he did not agree with the emperor's assessment and said he was sorry that Muslims had taken offense. "I think Catholics do not understand why that was so offensive," Ozbek said. "They do not understand what great love we have for our Prophet. When his name is mentioned, we send blessings and greetings to him." Ozbek said the fact that the conference was held is a positive and reassuring sign. "It affirmed for me the good intentions of the Catholic Church in dialogue," she said. "Especially after the death of Pope John Paul II, many Muslims thought the dialogue would be frozen, but this (conference) confirms Pope Benedict's intentions." On the other side, she said, "our responsibility as young Muslims is to make practical efforts at dialogue from the Muslim side." Omar Sillah, a 30-year-old Muslim from Gambia and a student at Gregorian University, said the conference would be "very helpful for peacemaking if we act on what we discussed." Although many of the participants are training to be leaders in their communities, he said, "I think I have a role to play already. I can communicate with the people I am in contact with. "My peace is meaningless without linking it to the peace of another; my joy is meaningless without the joy of another," he said. Sillah said the participants recognized that members of their religious communities often are manipulated for political purposes, but added that religion is not the problem. "No religion teaches hatred, fighting and discrimination," he said. Jean Nicolas Nammour, a 25-year-old Maronite Catholic from Lebanon, said the key to peacemaking "is simple for me: We do not have to change the world first. We have to change ourselves. Others will see this and follow our example. This is how we build peace every day." Jan Horyna, a 26-year-old board member of the European Union of Jewish Students, said, "The basic thing you need for dialogue is tolerance." Horyna, who lives in Prague, Czech Republic, said that in Europe and other Western societies it probably is time to start dialoguing with atheists and secularists, because they have the least tolerance for religion. He also said that while interreligious dialogue is important peace is impossible without political action to defend human rights and prevent discrimination. "Most problems and conflicts are not religious, but religion is used as an easy tool to promote political agendas," he said. "Peace is not just a religious thing; it's also political."

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