In an interreligious plea for peace on Tuesday at the Colosseum, Pope Francis brought up the possibility of nuclear war.
The pope stressed that he was making a call for peace at a time when it has been “gravely violated, assaulted, and trampled upon… in Europe” as he spoke from a wheelchair on a stage alongside representatives of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu faiths.
In reality, the use of atomic bombs, which was incorrectly perpetuated after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is directly threatened today, according to Pope Francis, who made the statement on October 25.
In 1962, at a time “when armed conflict and nuclear holocaust looked inevitable,” Pope John XXIII appealed to all political figures to spare the world the horrors of war. Francis cited this call and said that he intended to continue it 60 years later.
An appeal for peace that was co-signed by the current religious leaders was read aloud by a Syrian refugee immediately after the pope finished speaking.
The petition warned that unless conflicts are stopped, mankind will perish in a conflict.
“Let’s thus escape the nuclear horror. Let’s begin a real conversation on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation right now,” it urged.
The Community of Sant’Egidio hosted a three-day interreligious conference dubbed “The Cry for Peace,” which included a prayer service. Since St. John Paul II organized the inaugural World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi in 1986, the Catholic movement has annually hosted a global summit on the topic of peace.
At the Sant’Egidio meeting’s inaugural session, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Ukraine to determine the conditions of any potential peace accord.
The event’s last night started with an interfaith prayer for peace led by Christian authorities within the Colosseum.
Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, Coptic Orthodox Archbishop Dionysius Jean Kawak, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East Awa III, Lutheran Archbishop Tapio Luoma of Turku, and World Methodist Council President Jong Chun Park were among the Christian leaders present at the event.
Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome, Shoten Minegishi, a Soto Zen Buddhist monk from Japan, Sayyed Abu al-Qasim al-Dibaji of the World Pan-Islamic Jurisprudence Organization, and Edith Bruck, a Jewish author and Holocaust survivor, were all present at the peace appeal ceremony as representatives of various world religions.
Additionally present were Jaswant Singh, a representative of the Sikh faith, and Swami Sarv Asthananda, the leader of the Hindu Ramakrishna Vedanta Meditation Center in the United Kingdom.
“We Christians must make every effort to promote peace. The statement from the religious leaders continued, “It is our responsibility to assist disarm hearts and ask for peace among peoples.
“Unfortunately, we have sometimes caused division between ourselves by abusing God’s sacred name: we do so by humbly and shamefully asking for pardon. Religions are a valuable source of peace and must remain such. War is never sacred; peace is.