Pontiff prays for world peace with over 400 religious leaders

On September 20, 2016, Pope Francis arrived in Assisi, Italy for the final day of the World Day of Prayer for Peace meeting.

There, he, along with over 400 religious leaders, including the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, came together to discuss a way forward for the world.

Topics discussed included religious extremism, such as violence and terrorism, diversity and similarity in religions, and prayer as a peaceful tool, Vatican Radio reports.

Ending the ceremony, Pope Francis said: “We have come to Assisi as pilgrims in search of peace. We carry within us and place before God the hopes and sorrows of many persons and peoples: we thirst for peace; we desire to witness to peace.

[A]bove all, we need to pray for peace, because peace is God’s gift, and it lies with us to plead for it, embrace it, and build it every day with God’s help.

Before Christ Crucified, ‘the power and wisdom of God’ (1 Cor 1:24), we Christians are called to contemplate the mystery of Love not loved and to pour out mercy upon the world.

On the Cross, the tree of life, evil was transformed into good; we too, as disciples of the Crucified One, are called to be ‘trees of life’ that absorb the contamination of indifference and restore the pure air of love to the world. From the side of Christ on the Cross water flowed, that symbol of the Spirit who gives life (cf. Jn 19:34); so that from us, his faithful, compassion may flow forth for all who thirst today."

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The Catholic leader also made reference to Pope St. John Paul II, who started the tradition in 1986, while calling on everyone to do their best to promote peace.

“Here, thirty years ago, Pope John Paul II said: ‘Peace is a workshop, open to all and not just to specialists, savants and strategists. Peace is a universal responsibility.’ Let us assume this responsibility, reaffirming today our ‘yes’ to being, together, builders of the peace that God wishes for us and for which humanity thirsts", he concluded.

The ceremony was themed, "Thirst for peace: religions and cultures in dialogue."