Symphonies of Peace

Since its very beginning, Shinmeizan has been involved in international interreligious events having as their goal the pursuit of world peace. Among these, a special place is given to the meetings known as “Uomini e Religioni (Peoples and Religions)”, which are held annually in various European cities by the Community of Saint Egidio as an ideal con-tinuation of the great Assisi gathering of religious leaders, called by Saint John Paul II in 1986.

Every year, since 1989, Sr. Maria De Giorgi – who is in charge of international contacts and theological dialogue for Shinmeizan – takes part in these meetings, to which for over ten years also the Ven. Tairyu Furukawa participated.

Shinmeizan has also taken part several times in the annual ”Interreligious summit” which is held on August 4th at Mt. Hiei (Kyoto) by the Tendai branch of Buddhism, also as an ideal continuation of the 1986 Assisi event.

To the participation in these and similar events, there has been an interesting and im-portant addition this year, as Fr. Franco was invited to represent the Catholic Church at the international inter-religious gathering organized every year, since ten years ago, at the foot of Mt. Fuji, by the Buddhist association “Byakko Shinko Kai”, held usually on the third Sunday of May, which this year fell on May 18th. This event comes under the name of “Symphony of Prayers for Peace”, and consists actually in an a sort of “interreligious and international chorus of prayers for world peace”, offered successively by the representatives of various world religions, in which the numerous participants (this year they were about six thousand) join with their voices and their heart.

This Buddhist association is known all over the world for erecting the so called “Peace poles” everywhere, with the invocation “May peace prevail on earth!” printed in four different languages on the four sides of the quadrilateral pole. Fr. Franco, taking part in the Mount Fuji international event of May 18th this year, delivered a message on peace quoting from the Constitution on “The Church in the modern world” of Vatican II, because of the recurrent 50th anniversary of the Council, and offered a prayer for peace taking inspiration form ch. 13 of the 1st letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.

Like every year, also this year, Sr. Maria will take part in the Aug. 4th inter-religious event of Mt. Hiei, and will represent Shinmeizan at the international inter-religious meeting called by Saint’ Egidio, which this year will be held in Antwerpen (Belgium) on Sept. 6-8.

In a world torn by tragic internal wars, fuelled often by rampant religious fundamentalism, and scarred by atrocious violence on undefended civilians, the words of Pope Fran-cis, spoken on the occasion of the inter-religious prayer for peace held at the Vatican with the participation of the President of Israel, Simon Perez, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and of the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, sound as a prophetic call and a long term program for world peace: 

« Peacemaking calls for courage, much more so than warfare. It calls for the cour-age to say yes to encounter and no to conflict: yes to dialogue and no to violence; yes to negotiations and no to hostilities; yes to respect for agreements and no to acts of provocation; yes to sincerity and no to duplicity. All of this takes courage, it takes strength and tenacity. History teaches that our own powers do not suffice. More than once we have been on the verge of peace, but the evil one, employing a variety of means, has succeeded in blocking it. That is why we are here, because we know and we believe that we need the help of God. We do not renounce our responsibilities, but we do call upon God in an act of supreme responsibility before our consciences and before our peoples. We have heard a summons, and we must respond. It is the summons to break the spiral of hatred and violence, and to break it by one word alone: the word “brother”. But to be able to utter this word we have to lift our eyes to heaven and acknowledge one another as children of one Father ».