(From our correspondents in Assisi) - “It is from indifference that hatred is born, it is from indifference that conflict is born, it is from indifference that violence is born. Against such evils, dialogue is the only practicable, long-term solution”. This was said by the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, in his address to the religious delegations that were in the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli. “As religious leaders – he added –, our role is above all to promote” dialogue and “show, through our daily example, that we do not only live against each other, or beside each other, but rather with each other, in a spirit of peace, solidarity and fraternity”. “Even today, twenty-five years after the first meeting convened by the Blessed John Paul II – the Patriarch went on – precisely here in Assisi, ten years after the tragic events of September 11 and when the ‘Arab springs’ have not put an end to inter-community tensions, the place of religions among the ferments that are taking place across the world is still ambiguous”. “We must oppose to distortions of religious messages and symbols by the authors of violence. Developing the religious through the religious, this is necessary to promote the humanitarian dimension of a divine figure that wants to be merciful, fair and loving”.

© www.agensir.it - october 27th 2011