Former Israeli leader proposes united religious effort against terrorism

September 04, 2014

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres proposed a worldwide organization uniting religious leaders against terrorist violence, during a September 4 meeting with Pope Francis.

The Pope also met on the same day with Jordan’s Prince El Hassan Bin Talal, to discuss the work of the Arab leader’s Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies. Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, later told reporters that the Jordanian leader’s work is entirely directed toward interreligious dialogue and commitment to peace, in the current context of violence.”

Shimon Peres said that his plan for a “United Religions” initiative reflected the need for a new organization to promote world peace. “The UN has had its time,” he told reporters after his meeting with the Pope. He suggested a new group that would “establish in the name of all the faiths that slitting people's throats or conducting mass slaughters, like the ones we have seen in recent weeks, has nothing to do with religion.”

Pope Francis listened attentively to the Peres proposal, Father Lombardi reported. The Vatican spokesman said that the Pope and the Israeli statesman also discussed the Vatican ceremony in which Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had joined in prayers for peace. That papal initiative “is in no wise to be considered a failure,” Father Lombardi said, “but rather as the opening of a door that remains open.”

 

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Further information:

• Peace, dialogue at centre of audiences with Peres and Hassan (Vatican Radio)
• Religions and Peace at the Centre of the Pope's Audiences with Israeli Ex-President Shimon Peres and Price El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan (VIS)
• Peres proposes anti-terror 'Religions UN' to Pope Francis (ANSA)