JOHN PAUL II EXTENDS INVITATION TO JOIN IN PRAYER FOR PEACE

VATICAN CITY, JAN 20, 2002 (VIS) - Before praying the angelus at midday today, the Pope spoke on the Day of Prayer for Peace, due to be held on January 24, and extended an invitation to "believers and people of good will from the whole world" to join the "pilgrimage by train" he will make to Assisi because, he said, "we are all called to build peace together."

"I would particularly like to invite religious and monastic communities, especially the enclosed orders, as well as children, the sick and the elderly to join us in prayer."

John Paul II affirmed that following the attack of September 11 and faced by the risk of fresh conflicts, "believers feel the urgent need to intensify their prayers for peace, because this is, above all, a gift from God." On this theme, he recalled that December 14, 2001, had been a day of fasting, while Thursday January 24, will be a day of prayer for peace, to be held in Assisi, Italy. "Thus," he said, "the experience of October 27, 1986, will be repeated, when, for the first time, the town of St. Francis saw representatives from the world's religions gather within its walls in order to raise to heaven a fervent appeal for peace."

After highlighting that the Day of Prayer for Peace "does not intend in any way to indulge religious syncretism," he emphasized that "men and women from different religions can not only collaborate but, indeed, must commit themselves ever more in the defence and promotion of the effective recognition of human rights, an indispensable condition for true and lasting peace. In the face of the violence that presently ravages so many regions of the world, they feel the need to demonstrate that religion is a uniting factor, thus renouncing and isolating all those who employ the name of God for ends and using methods that, in reality, offend Him."

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