Assisi 2011

Day of Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer
for Peace and Justice in the World

“Pilgrims of Truth, Pilgrims of Peace”

Assisi, Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels
Thursday, 27 October 2011

Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Distinguished Heads and Representatives of Churches,
Ecclesial Communities and World Religions,
Dear Friends, 

Twenty-five years have passed since Blessed Pope John Paul II first invited representatives of the world/s religions to Assisi to pray for peace. What has happened in the meantime? What is the state of play with regard to peace today? At that time the great threat to world peace came from the division of the earth into two mutually opposed blocs. A conspicuous symbol of this division was the Berlin Wall which traced the border between two worlds right through the heart of the city.    

In 1989, three years after Assisi, the wall came down, without bloodshed. Suddenly the vast arsenals that stood behind the wall were no longer significant. They had lost their terror. The peoples’ will to freedom was stronger than the arsenals of violence. The question as to the causes of this dramatic change is complex and cannot be answered with simple formulae. But in addition to economic and political factors, the deepest reason for the event is a spiritual one: behind material might there were no longer any spiritual convictions.

The will to freedom was ultimately stronger than the fear of violence, which now lacked any spiritual veneer. For this victory of freedom, which was also, above all, a victory of peace, we give thanks. What is more, this was not merely, nor even primarily, about the freedom to believe, although it did include this. To that extent we may in some way link all this to our prayer for peace. But what happened next? [...]

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