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Opening Assembly of the International Meeting for Peace in Barcelona: the words of Andrea Riccardi

Prayer for PeaceDialogueEcumenismBarcelonaSpirit of Assisi

RICCARDI (1). BUILDING THE HUMAN FAMILY AND NOT EMPHASISING DIFFERENCES. TO PREACH TOLERANCE IS NOT ENOUGH. WE NEED TO MAKE THE LONGEST JOURNEY INTO OUR OWN HEARTS, IN ORDER TO RECOVER OURSELVES AS FRIENDS OF GOD AND FRIENDS OF THE OTHERS.

At the opening of the Meeting in Barcelona, Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio, greets Catalonia, "land of freedom and enduring wisdom", and Barcelona as it prepares to inaugurate the temple of the Sagrada Familia. "Dialogue calls upon religions to become spiritual pillars of a “world as a family”. The word “family” is a simple, human, ancient, at-reach, word. It bears a wise naivety: the “world as a family” witnesses the radical unity between peoples."
Riccardi sais that it is not enough to preach tolerance. "We need to make the longest journey into our own hearts, in order to recover ourselves as friends of God and friends of the others." Riccardi pointed out that the Koran states, "Set your trust in God, your protection will be enough." And quoting Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: "the test of faith consists in understanding if I can make room for difference: Can I recognise God in someone who does not correspond to my image, whose language, faith, whose ideals are different from mine? If I cannot, then I have made God in my likeness."
Riccardi continued: "We have to avoid emphasising differences, a dangerous game which is detrimental to the social fabric of our countries, although it may give the impression of reaping electoral returns. Consequently, the presence of the Roma people should not be viewed as menace, but as an issue to be addressed with patience and commitment. Social integration of immigrants is an epochal task, to be accomplished in an intelligent and sensible way."


Riccardi (2): THE DECADE OF CONFLICT IS FINISHING, WITH ITS DRAMATIC HERITAGE. BUT THE HISTORY IS FULL OF CHANGES. HOPE AND NOT VIOLENCE IS ITS REAL ENGINE.

Riccardi recalled that "Peace is dramatically fragile in many parts of the world" and the decade that is finishing saw the "rehabilitation of war as as an effective tool to defend peace and safety" and the return to a vision in which "history’s midwife is conflict". Many people - said Riccardi - criticized the dialogue, and some of them wanted to enrol religions under the flag of conflict. "Spiritually frail men and women felt strong by speaking of strength and war. Fanaticism became the landfall for people who had lost their bounds, weak people with hardened faces and hatred in their eyes."
But if the new millennium seemed to begin on 11th September 2001, in Riccardi's opinion "the history can be full of changes and surprises." We must give back to the world a hope for the future, because "We have seen the failure of war in bringing about peace and what a poisoned legacy wars and terrorism have left. The myth of the global market was shattered, and the hope of building a more human world has been worn out... Hopelessness means to accept us as mediocre, dreamless, mere managers of the present. Is this not true also for men and women of religion?".
Hope, not violence, is the engine of progress of mankind through all generations. "Building a different world means first of all a world of peace, because war is the most inhuman aspect of the history of peoples."


Riccardi (3). THE FAITHS AND PRAYER ARE THE ROOTS OF HOPE FOR AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST. THE RELATIONSHIP WITH ASIA IS NOT ONLY COMMERCIAL BUT ALSO SPIRITUAL

Riccardi, introducing one of the striking points of the meeting in Barcelona, recalled the Holy Land, where it's urgent to reach an agreed solution, without hiding the problems. "I believe that reconciliation in that region, including safety for Israel, disarming the violent and the terrorists, and a homeland for the Palestinians, is hard to achieve: it will be the prophetic sign of a new era for the world." Riccardi then spoke about two complex situations in the heart of Africa, where Sant'Egidio, religious men and the power of prayer have given an important contribution to avoiding conflict and promoting reconciliation, namely Ivory Coast and Guinea. On the subject of significant Asian delegations, among which China, but also Indonesia, Pakistan, Japan and India, Riccardi said that "Asia is not only a business opportunity or a marketplace: there is a spiritual dialogue to initiate in the multi-polar Asian world. Can prayer make a difference? However, what would the world look like, if people had not prayed?".