Here is a ZENIT translation of the Message that Pope Francis sent to participants in the 28th edition of the International Meeting for Peace that this year, 20 years after the end of the war in the Balkans, is being held in Tirana, Albania, from September 6-8, on the topic “Peace Is Always Possible – Religions and Cultures in Dialogue.”
Distinguished representatives of the Christian Churches and Communities and of the great religions of the world, I give you all my respectful greetings and I express my spiritual closeness to the International Meeting for Peace that the Sant’Egidio Community has promoted at Tirana. These meetings follow one another in the wake traced by Saint John Paul II with the first historic Meeting of Assisi in October of 1986. Since then a pilgrimage of men and women of different religions has developed that, year after year, makes a stage in different cities of the world. While the scenes of history change and people are called to confront profound and at times dramatic transformations, the necessity is increasingly perceived that the followers of different religions must meet, dialogue, walk together and collaborate for peace, in that “spirit of Assisi” that makes reference to the luminous testimony of Saint Francis.
Therefore, dear friends, I am particularly pleased for your having chosen Albania. I would like to confirm together with you today what I affirmed last year at Tirana: “A peaceful and fruitful coexistence between persons and communities of believers of different religions is not only desirable, but possible and realistic. The peaceful coexistence of different religious communities is, in fact, an inestimable benefit to peace and to harmonious human advancement. This is something of value which needs to be protected and nourished each day, by providing an education which respects differences and particular identities, so that dialogue and cooperation for the good of all may be promoted and strengthened by mutual understanding and esteem. It is a gift which we need to implore from God in prayer.” (Address to the Authorities, September 21, 2014). This is the spirit of Assisi: to live together in peace, recalling that peace and coexistence have a religious foundation. Prayer is always at the root of peace!
