Scottish Catholic Observer

Religious leaders gathered in Assisi committed themselves today to working for peace through education, dialogue, forgiveness, family, the poor and friendship.

After a train ride of almost two hours from the Vatican, Pope Benedict and his guests arrived in Assisi and the Holy Father led the interfaith peace meeting in the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels. Joined by Buddhist monks, Islamic scholars, Yoruba leaders and a handful of agnostics in making a communal call for peace, he insisted that religion must never be used as a pretext for war or terrorism.

“As a Christian, I want to say at this point: yes, it is true, in the course of history, force has also been used in the name of the Christian faith. We acknowledge it with great shame,” Pope Benedict said.

The Holy Father welcomed some 300 leaders representing a myriad of faiths to the Italian town of to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a the prayer for peace there led by Pope John Paul II in 1986, as the Cold War raged.

Buddhist monks from mainland China joined the gathering, as did four people who profess no faith at all, part of Pope Benedict’s efforts to reach out to agnostics and atheists who nevertheless are searching for truth.

The Holy Father said that: “All their struggling and questioning is, in part, an appeal to believers to purify their faith so that God, the true God, becomes accessible.”

And unlike the 1986 event—and successive ones in 1993 and 2002—there was no communal prayer today. When Cardinal Ratzinger, the Holy Father did not attend in 1986 because he did not believe in members of different faiths praying together.

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Pictured, from left, are: Archbishop Norvan Zakarian of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Pope Benedict XVI