Religious leaders sign peace
declaration
By PATRICIA LEFEVERE
Special Report Writer New York
Almost half a century ago, U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold
saw no hope for permanent world peace
unless there is a spiritual
awakening on the worldwide scale. Late last month the almost 1,000
religious figures who gathered at the United Nations for The Millennium World
Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders tried to advance such a global
spiritual awakening.
Like previous U.N. summits, this one did not lack for words or
color. Archbishops and swamis, grand muftis and rabbis, Sufi masters and
Buddhist abbots, indigenous holy men and women rubbed shoulders in U.N.
corridors Aug. 28 and 29 and attended some 220 scheduled talks. Before
returning to their 100 nations, the leaders signed a Declaration for World
Peace. In it they pledged to work for eradication of poverty and hunger,
custodial care of the environment and abolition of weapons, which have claimed
27 million lives in armed conflict during the past half century.
They began the task of forming an Advisory Council, that will
guide and partner the U.N.s peacemaking work, according to
Bawa Jain, secretary general of the summit. Calling the United Nations the
House of Micah (in a reference to Micah 6:8), Jain said that
spiritual leaders had turned its General Assembly hall into a sanctuary. When
world political leaders gather for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly in
early September, prayers spoken at the religious summit will be there to guide
them, he said.
A native of India who belongs to the Jain faith, Jain has spent
the past two years traveling worldwide to invite religious leaders to the
United Nations.
The U.N. summit grew out of a conversation three years ago between
Secretary General Kofi Annan and media mogul Ted Turner, who suggested that
religious leaders come to the United Nations.
Annan drew cheers when he told participants, There must be
no room in the 21st century for religious bigotry and intolerance. Annan
reaffirmed the fundamental human right to freedom of religion and worship,
including writing, publishing and teaching, celebrating holidays, choosing
ones own religious leaders, maintaining places of worship and
communicating with others at home and aboard. While such rights are enshrined
in several landmark U.N. documents, the failure of governments and authorities
to protect these freedoms is at once an affront and a menace, he
said.
Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council on
Interreligious Dialogue, read a message from Pope John Paul. The pope said that
peace cannot be left solely to politicians, diplomats and lawyers, but that
religious leaders can contribute moral truths. Its time for them to
affirm that peace is possible, peace is our sacred duty; peace is the
future willed by God.
The World Council of Churches general secretary, the Rev. Konrad
Raiser, also addressed the summit and later met with Annan. The U.N. gathering,
he said, has illustrated that the religious and spiritual dimension of
our life cannot be separated from how we shape, mobilize and live our political
life.
But Raiser questioned why existing networks of interfaith dialogue
were so little consulted for the summit, networks such as the World Council of
Churches, the World Conference on Religion and Peace and the World Parliament
of Religions.
Outside U.N. headquarters, Bishop Andrew Francis of Multan,
Pakistan, said that the summit had helped him fulfill his dream that
through mutual respect, understanding and the power of prayer we can
build up the world. Four years ago Francis was shot at by enemies, whom
he chose to call non-Christian. Both bullets missed him.
In an address prepared for the summit, Francis pleaded with
you men of the earth to stop the sexual, psychological and
emotional abuse and worse
honor killings, as well as discriminatory laws
and customs and degrading exploitation of women and children. In an
interview, he said the 200,000 Catholics in his diocese live in the most
underdeveloped area of the Southern Punjab and are among the despised and
rejected of the earth. He called on U.S. Catholics to be in solidarity
through prayer and financial support. The bishop said he would welcome anyone
who could come and work in his diocese.
Nobel laureate Betty Williams of Northern Ireland spoke for many
when she told the men of the cloth not to stand up and give
platitudes. The real work of peacemaking and nonviolence is the
hardest work youll ever have to do. While starvation exists before
their eyes, religious leaders talk about sexual morality, she
said.
Williams recited, Blessed is the fruit of your womb
from the Hail Mary, and urged women to rage against men going to
war. We women love men
but we say: Move over.
Well take the world and if we make it any worse than you, well give
it back.
The absence of the Dalai Lama from a meeting of global spiritual
leaders illustrated for many the ongoing tensions between religion and
politics. Organizers bowed to objections from China and decided not to invite
the world-revered leader of Tibetan Buddhism. More than 150 of his supporters
protested across the street from the United Nations.
National Catholic Reporter, September 8,
2000
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