VATICAN - Benedict XVI in the Holy Land (23) - Meeting with the religious leaders of Galilee: “Our different religious traditions have a powerful potential to promote a culture of peace”

Nazareth (Agenzia Fides) – On the afternoon of May 14, the Holy Father Benedict XVI met with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a private discussion in the Franciscan Convent in Nazareth. He then traveled to the Auditorium of the Shrine of the Annunciation to meet with religious leaders from Galilee, including Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Druze.
“I feel particularly blessed to visit this city revered by Christians as the place where the Angel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit,” the Pope said in his address. “The conviction that the world is a gift of God, and that God has entered the twists and turns of human history, is the perspective from which Christians view creation as having a reason and a purpose. Far from being the result of blind fate, the world has been willed by God and bespeaks his glorious splendor.”
Benedict XVI then highlighted that “at the heart of all religious traditions is the conviction that peace itself is a gift from God, yet it cannot be achieved without human endeavor. Lasting peace flows from the recognition that the world is ultimately not our own, but rather the horizon within which we are invited to participate in God’s love and cooperate in guiding the world and history under his inspiration.” The Pope then recalled that Galilee “is home to a people who know well the efforts required to live in harmonious coexistence,” he said. “Our different religious traditions have a powerful potential to promote a culture of peace, especially through teaching and preaching the deeper spiritual values of our common humanity. By molding the hearts of the young, we mold the future of humanity itself. Christians readily join Jews, Muslims, Druze, and people of other religions in wishing to safeguard children from fanaticism and violence while preparing them to be builders of a better world.”
The Holy Father concluded his address by encouraging those present “to continue exercising mutual respect as you work to ease tensions concerning places of worship, thus assuring a serene environment for prayer and reflection here and throughout Galilee.” He assured that the Catholic Church “in cooperation with men and women of good will, [she] will seek to ensure that the light of truth, peace and goodness continue to shine forth from Galilee and lead people across the globe to seek all that fosters the unity of the human family.”
At the end of the meeting, the Pope visited the Grotto of the Annunciation in the Shrine of Nazareth. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 15/5/2009)