Egypt: Pope Francis, “There is a need for peacebuilders, not weapons”

By Annachiara Valle

28/04/2017 Pope Francis, at the first speech in Egypt at the International Peace Conference, recalls that the task of religions is to eradicate violence and build peace. Faithful to God’s Commandment on Sinai “Do not Kill”

“God’s ignorance leads to violence.” Shaykh Ahmad Al-Tayeb, the great Imam of Al Azhar is on the same wavelength as Pope Francis. The two hug them several times, they call themselves brothers. In the great university hall, a point of reference for the Sunni world, they talk to participants at the International Peace Conference. And peace is the word that is most frequently quoted. He also uses the speaker to give the floor to Francis, the “Pope of Peace who presents his allegiance.” Bergoglio greeted the great imam calling him brother and thanking him for having devised this encounter between religions for peace. A discourse of frankly breathing is that of Francis, who points above all to education “because there will be no peace without proper education of younger generations. And there will be no adequate education for young people today if their training offerings will not be well-respected in the nature of man. “

An education that becomes wisdom when it is able to make the best of each one when it is able to overcome the temptation to stiffen or close itself, when it knows how to look to the past because “from the past learns that evil only arises from evil and Violence only violence, in a spiral that ends up imprisoning. “

Talk of dialogue, Pope Francis, of walking together “in the belief that the future of all depends on the encounter between religions and cultures”. Dialogue and meeting that have three fundamental pillars: “The duty of identity, the courage of alterity, and the sincerity of intentions. The duty of identity, because there is no real dialogue about ambiguity or about sacrificing good to please each other; The courage of alienity, because someone who is different from me, culturally or religiously, should not be seen and treated as an enemy but welcomed as a street companion, in the genuine conviction that the good of each one resides in the good of all; The sincerity of intentions, because dialogue, as an authentic expression of humankind, is not a strategy to achieve second ends, but a path of truth that deserves to be patiently undertaken to transform competition in collaboration. “

Francis reiterates his dear concepts, recalling that ” the only alternative to the civilization of the encounter is the incivility of the clash. And to really counter the barbarity of those who blow on hatred and incite to violence, it is necessary to accompany and mature generations that respond to the incendiary logic of evil with the patient’s growth of good: young people who, like well-planted trees, are rooted in the soil of History and, growing up to the High and next to each other, every day transform the polluted air of hate into the oxygen of the fraternity. “

Bergoglio hopes that this civilization of the encounter will be here, in Egypt, “from this sun-kissed land.” And he asks for the intercession of “Saint Francis of Assisi, who came to Egypt eight centuries ago and met Sultan Malik at Kamil.”

Earth kissed by the sun, a land of alliances where “over the centuries, differences of religion have constituted” a form of mutual enrichment in the service of the only national community . Different faiths have come together and various cultures have mingled, without confusion but acknowledging the importance of alliances for the common good. Alliances of this kind are urgent today. “

The Pope uses “as the symbol of the” Mount of the Covenant “which rises in this land. Sinai reminds us first of all that an authentic alliance on earth can not be ignored by Heaven, that humanity can not propose to meet in peace excluding God from the horizon, nor can it ascend to the mount to seize God . “

Point your finger against the paradox he wants, on the one hand relegate religion to the private and, on the other, confuse it with politics. “There is a risk,” says Pope Francis, “that religion is absorbed by the management of temporal affairs and tempted by the flattery of world powers which in fact make it instrumental.”

We need to look up, remember the ten words God gave to man on Mount Sinai. “At the center of the” ten words “, it turns to the men and peoples of all time, the command” do not kill “. And they are the leaders of the religions called to follow this command, “we,” the Pope still says, “are called upon to expose the violence that is abused by presumptuous sacredness , leveraging the absolutization of egoisms rather than the genuine opening to the” Absolute. We are required to denounce violations of human dignity and human rights, to bring to light attempts to justify any form of hatred in the name of religion and condemn them as idolatrous fake of God: His name is holy, He is God of Peace , God of salam. Therefore, only peace is holy, “he repeats as he had already done in the meeting People and religions summoned to Assisi last year,” and no violence can be perpetrated in the name of God, for he would profane his name. “

The Pope, repeatedly interrupted by the applause of the present, asks to repeat together, “From this earth of encounter between Heaven and earth, of alliances between peoples and believers, a” no “strong and clear to all forms of violence, Revenge and hatred committed in the name of religion or in the name of God. Together we affirm the incompatibility between violence and faith, between believing and hating. Together we declare the sacredness of every human life against any form of physical, social, educational or psychological violence. Faith that does not originate from a sincere heart and an authentic love to God Merciful is a form of conventional or social attachment that does not free man but crushes. Let’s say together: the more you grow in faith in God the more you grow in the love of your neighbor. “

And there is not only the denunciation of evil. “Without giving up conciliatory syncretism, our task is to pray for each other by asking God for the gift of peace, meeting, dialogue and promoting harmony in a spirit of collaboration and friendship,” emphasizes Francesco, adding: ” Come Christians, I am a Christian, we can not invoke God as the Father of all men if we refuse to act as brothers to some of the men who are created in the image of God. “

That against the arms race, “little or nothing is needed to raise the voice and run to rearm in order to protect itself” and recalls that ” today there is a need for peace-makers, not of arms , of peace-makers who are not provocateurs of conflict; Of firemen and not of incendiari; Of reconciliation preachers and not of destruction bandits. “

Denounce populisms and demagogues, “which certainly do not help to consolidate peace and stability: no violent incitement will guarantee peace, and any unilateral action that does not start constructive and shared processes is in fact a gift to the advocates of radicalism and violence » . And he explains that “in order to prevent conflicts and build peace, it is essential to strive for the removal of poverty and exploitation situations, where extremes are easier to capture, and to block money and arms flows towards those who are fomenting violence . Even more to the root, it is necessary to stop the proliferation of weapons that, if produced and traded, will sooner or later be used as well. Only by making the turbulent maneuvers that feed cancer can be transparent if they can prevent real causes. This urgent and heavy commitment is held by those responsible for the nations, the institutions and the information, as we are responsible for civilizations, summoned by God, from history and from the future, to initiate, in their own field, peace processes, not subtracting By throwing solid bases of alliance between peoples and states. “

Source: http://www.famigliacristiana.it/articolo/papa-in-egitto.aspx