From: [D]@gmail.com
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011
4:10 PM
To: Eric
Subject: Article of interest...
1Th 5:1 But of the times and the seasons,
brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
1Th 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day
of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
1Th 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as
travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
1Th 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness,
that that day should overtake you as a thief.
POPE-SEPT11 Sep-12-2011
Pope, religious leaders in Europe mark 9/11 anniversary
ANCONA, Italy (CNS) -- Remembering the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks, Pope Benedict XVI appealed to government leaders and
all people of good will to work toward a future marked by solidarity and peace.
The pope marked the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in
the United States after celebrating the closing Mass for the Italian National
Eucharistic Congress in Ancona, on Italy's Adriatic
coast.
Before leading the midday Angelus prayer with about 80,000 people
gathered at a shipyard, the pope recalled the anniversary.
"In commending to the Lord the lives of the
victims of the attacks carried out that day and their families, I ask leaders
of nations and people of good will always to refuse violence as a solution to
problems, to resist the temptation of hatred and to work in society, drawing
inspiration from the principles of solidarity, justice and peace," the
pope said.
Pope Benedict also sent a message to about 300 religious leaders
gathered in Munich to commemorate the anniversary at the beginning of the
annual interreligious dialogue meeting sponsored by the Community of Sant'Egidio, a Rome-based lay movement.
The theme of the gathering was "Bound to Live Together,"
and the pope said that when people do not open themselves to learning from,
sharing with and respecting others, living together "can become a
hell."
Religious leaders, he said, must ask themselves how they can become
forces to promote peaceful coexistence and cooperation.
Religions promote peace when they lead people to an encounter with God
and to a life lived out of obedience and love for God and for the men and women
he created, he said.
"If religion fails to bring people to God, if it lowers God to
itself instead of raising us to him, if it makes God our property in some way,
then religion can contribute to the dissolution of peace," he said.
"We know that in Christianity, too, there have been
distortions of the image of God, which have led to the destruction of peace. We
are all called to let God purify us so that we would become people of
peace," the pope wrote.
The Sant'Egidio meeting opened with a
prayer service linked by satellite with New York.
In addition, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New
York also sent a message to the religious leaders gathered in Munich.
"We are all entrusted with a sacred task
each day, but especially today: the task of reflecting together on the future
we want to build," he wrote.
"The next 10 years of this still new
century cannot be like the first," he said. "Peace must finally
reign."
Andrea Riccardi, founder of Sant'Egidio, told the gathering, "September 11, 2001,
was the tragic opening of the 21st century. We clearly saw how terrorism is the
foulest form of violence."
The terrorist attacks and the reaction to them, he said, led to a
"generalized culture of conflict" in which thousands of civilians and
soldiers died in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.
The task for those who believe in God and who want a future of hope
and peace, he said, is to "go back to the feelings of global sympathy and
compassion" that marked Sept. 11, 2001.
The outpouring of solidarity that day, he said, was not an
expression of naivete, but of a "sense of a
common destiny."
At the memorial service, Cardinal Reinhard
Marx of Munich said people must not let "terror set the political and
social agenda."
While nations have an obligation to act to protect their citizens,
"we have been too focused on scenarios and rhetoric of war," he said.
"We have to learn again that our world can function in the future only
with an order of justice and solidarity, with forces of reconciliation, peace
and coexistence."
END