news

With the Eucharistic Liturgy presided over by Cardinal Sistach in Santa Maria del Mar, the workshop of peace opens among the streets of Barcelona.

Prayer for PeaceDialogueEcumenismBarcelonaSpirit of Assisi

In the narrow streets of Barcelona, the Gothic Santa Maria del Mar is open as a space of encounter and prayer in the folds of a difficult world. The composite people of the international meetings for peace promoted by Sant'Egidio fills up this church, and in the Eucharistic Liturgy presided over by Card. Sistach, for the first time listens to the homily of a Russian Orthodox metropolitan, the Exarch of Belarus Filaret. He is part of a large and important delegation from the patriarchate of Moscow, along with Hilarion, Head of External Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, and other metropolitans.
The two bishops's adresses are particularly tuned: facing the difficulties of a contemporary world where conflict and skepticism prevail, they indicate the path of dialogue and faith.
Sistach said that in a time of crisis, "we may be tempted to let us get swept away by discouragement, as if to tell to ourselves: we offer peace, but what dominates is conflict". In his reflection Filaret moved from a similar question: "Does our prayer have power and meaning? Isn't our faith vain? Hasn't the Lord left this world, that escapes the Gospel so meticulously? ".
In front these questions, from the International Meeting of the Community of Sant'Egidio old and new answers emerge. So while Sistach invited all to be men and women of faith, and to look at the path taken in twenty-five years of meetings, from Assisi 1986, when John Paul II for the first time invited the leaders of various religious traditions to pray for peace, Filaret has instead showed to Christians not the path of disputing, but that of witness, appealing to the insuppressible freedom of the human being.
During the liturgy, the Pope's message sent through the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, was read: "(...) In this difficult time of crisis and conflict, worsened by the increasing extent of the globalization, religions are called to realise their special vocation of service to peace and coexistence. All peoples, in order to live as an authentic community of brothers and sisters, need to be inspired and supported by the common foundation of spiritual and ethic values. In recognising God as the source of the existence of every person, religions help society as a whole to promote the inviolable dignity of every human being. (...) the selfless service of peace requires all believers to undertake the inescapable priority of prayer as a commitment. (...) in prayer we can find new spiritual energies that prevent us from being conquered by difficulties and by the snares of evil, from losing heart in the necessary path of dialogue, which may then definitively drive away misunderstandings and distrust, and allow us to continue and build, as brothers and sisters, members of the same human family, the path of harmonious coexistence."