Papal message of support for inter-religious gathering in Japan
August 03, 2012
Pope Benedict XVI has sent his greetings to an Inter-religious Gathering of Prayer for World Peace, being held in Japan. The Pontiff noted that the meeting—an annual event held on Mount Hiel—evokes “the spirit of the 1986 historic meeting in Assisi” convened by Blessed John Paul II.
The Pope expressed confidence that the Mount Hiel meeting—the 35th such annual gathering at the Japanese site—would produce positive results for inter-religious amity. He also voiced his hope that the meeting would bring progress on the subject under discussion at this year’s gathering: the response of religious groups to natural disasters.
“According to the Christian perspective,” the Pope wrote, “the love given lo those who suffer is a reflection of the divine charity of God who so loved the world that he sent his only Son Jesus Christ.” In that light, he said, the coordinated effort to help victims of last year’s earthquake in Japan was an uplifting demonstration of “how people of different beliefs can cooperate with one another for the good of the human person.”
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