Mr. President
Eminences and Distinguished Religious Representatives
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcoming you to this Summit of authoritative Christian �Muslim representatives, I would briefly state the sense of this meeting. The speech with which it has been summoned, and to which you have responded so willingly, clearly shows that this Summit is connected with the tragic moment through which we are living, which began with the terrible events of 11 September. I thank you all for agreeing to take part in this meeting, while I am well aware of the efforts some of you have made travelling long distances and changing your programs. This generosity reveals the need to speak to one another at this grave time.

We have all realised how fragile peace is frail, how uncertain is our citizens� security, how the contemporary world is experiencing a painful unknown. It was as if a sort of astonishment seized the public opinion faced with events that reveal the power of evil, like those of 11 September. Many questions have been raised about our present and on the common future.

In this tragic moment, our solidarity goes out to the victims and to the whole American people, so severely tested.

Perhaps, due to the disorientation of the moment, some voices have been raised which interpret these terrible moments as the sign of a clash of civilisations and of religions. A clash between the Christian-Western world and Islam, or, more simply, between Islam and Christianity. It has also been said that religion is a soil where dangerous outlooks on people and the world, which can justify violence and evil, develop. This has given rise to attitudes of distrust towards religious life itself. Our contemporary world has become so uncertain and complex to, resort, unfortunately, to terrible simplifications. Apocalyptic scenarios have been drawn before our eyes.

This is not a meeting of politicians, of investigators, of analysts. It is a meeting of people of religion: it is not our primary task to investigate those events, their material origins or their dynamics. It is however our task to be questioned by the outbreak of violence. People of religion have the task to make others feel the moral strength of living with faith faced with the sorrow of so many families and the uncertainty of tomorrow.

Certainly and first of all, there is the moral duty to give a resolute denial to terrorism and to the dark forces, which despise human life, expressions, almost, of the nihilism according to which every man, religion, value can be exploited. Let us make ours the words that John Paul II addressed to God, before many young Muslims gathered to meet him in Casablanca in Morocco so many years ago: �Do not let it be that, by invoking your name, we justify human disorders�.

This is neither a contingent nor an opportunistic denial. It is rooted in the value of the monotheistic religions, which do not want war, violence and terrorism, but peace. They consider that peace is God�s precious name. This is a time for reaffirming and for highlighting again that a special link between faith and peace exists in the monotheistic religions. It is not my task to explain to you this simple truth.

On this there is a large consensus among people of different religions and in many parts of the world. I would just mention the text of the appeal signed in 1987 by the leaders of the different world religions which the Community of Sant�Egidio in Rome brought together to continue the meeting opened one year before in Assisi. Behind this meeting there is indeed a network of dialogue and friendship which has grown over the years. Religious leaders gathered in Rome declared (and Cardinal Martini was the first to sign):

�We want to remind everybody that religions do not drive people to hatred and war, do not justify the shedding of innocent blood. Religions do not want war, but peace �. We feel it is absurd to speak of war in the name of religion and we firmly say: may the word of religion be peace!�

The Community of Sant�Egidio was born in Rome more than thirty years ago and now exists in more than sixty countries. Its attention to and friendship with the Muslim worlds is not new. I would just mention the meetings in 1994 and 1995 in search of a peaceful solution in Algeria, which still suffers so much and where people die because of violence and terrorism.

The Community of Sant�Egidio felt the need to call its Christian and Muslim friends to take stock of Christian-Muslim relations, in this very dark hour. It felt the need for Christians and Muslims to reflect together on the sacred value of peace and of human life, here in Rome, where the Community has its heart, a city above all of very ancient Christian traditions, the Episcopal seat of Pope John Paul II, to whose commitment for peace we pay homage. But Rome is also a city of international meetings, capital of a democratic State, open to and interested in relations in the Mediterranean, in the Arab-Muslim world, in the South of the world.

Our Summit, summoned in the emergency of the moment, is rooted in a distant past of dialogue and friendship between Muslims and Christians. Christian and Muslim worlds have been speaking to each other for years. This is what happens in our meetings, that after Assisi in 1986, we summon representatives of the two monotheistic religions and of the other world religions, year after year. This year the meeting took place in Barcelona, with great success, less that ten days before the attack. Ours is a story of much dialogue, developed over the past 30 years, within the framework of Christian-Muslim relations, which have found a new harmony, wiping out the ignorance or the misunderstanding of the past. In particular, I would like to mention the commitment of many representatives who are here: that of Mgr. Michael Fitzgerald and of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, which in the name of the Pope fosters interreligious dialogue.

An intense tradition of dialogue and friendship has led the Community of Sant�Egidio to welcome the proposal to meet in Rome, to speak in public and privately. Almost as if we are carrying on the meeting of Barcelona, saying one to each other that nothing has changed in the commitment of religions to the search for peace. Rather, the appeal signed at the end of the Barcelona meeting, by many religious representatives � and Cardinal Etchegaray was there with us - leads us to immediately continue a line of peace and dialogue in these hard times. There was nearly a moral imperative to this meeting.

Ours is a meeting of a group of Christians of different denominations, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, with a group of authoritative Muslim representatives from various countries: let me greet some of them. The two groups freely express their point of view, as needing contact and dialogue.

However political events now develop, there is neither a war of religion nor a war of civilizations. It is just a terrible time for the world: but ditches must not be made deeper, distances must not be increased, walls of misunderstanding must not be raised. We must live with intelligence and faith, this time that is, perhaps, the door on to the post-modern world.

The great religious resources cannot be ruined by the possibility of a war of civilizations or of religions. The great resources, that religions transfer to the heart of their believers, aim at transforming people from inside, at making them responsible before God and other people, leading them to appreciate spiritual values and the sacred sense of life. Great is the task of religions which face contemporary men and women, often lost and uncertain in front of great changes, worried about the future, tempted to live a little life and to look for their own well-being.

For religions peace is not just the absence of war, but a spiritual value that touches the soul of people, their social relations and that is rooted in the heart and embraces the life of peoples.

The great religions do not waste their heritage in hatred, in stirring up violence, in justifying conflicts. This summit aims at taking up the threads of dialogue in these hours so to repeat to ourselves and to the world our commitment to peace. It is important that Muslims say it to Christians, that Christians say it to Muslims, that religions express themselves through messages the whole world can understand. Today, not only circumscribed worlds address themselves to religions, but it is the whole world that looks at people of religious faith, that questions them, that is waiting for a word.

It is a moment full, not only of worries, but also of questions: what can we do more of to avoid the culture of hatred? How can religious preaching, example, testimony help believers of the different religions to be artisans of peace on the ways of the world and in their daily life? These questions have always been addressed to saints and believers of the different religions: but today they are becoming more intense or perhaps more dramatic. How to be artisans of peace? How to heal the world from the culture of hatred?

Today, in our contemporary world, believers of all religions live together in every part of the world, in many cities and countries: they meet, work together, cooperate. The world where people lived just with those who believed in their same faith has ended. Today many different people live together. It is important, then, to learn to coexist. Right in Barcelona we insisted on the commitment of religions to realise the art of coexistence among people who are different from an ethnic, religious, national point of view. Today we live together at all levels among different people. It is necessary to work deeply � also on the part of religions � for peace, a peace that goes down into the folds of society, that teaches respect for the other, that heals the roots of hatred, that heals from the temptations of violence. New scenarios, terrible menaces call for new and more daring responsibilities. This Summit of ours has been perhaps daring in the speed with which it has been called; my hope is that it is effective and daring in dialogue and in answers.

Maybe religions, in accordance with all people of goodwill, must promote greater sensitivity towards the outcasts of the world. A great pope, a wise observer of human events, Paul VI, who died in 1978, spoke prophetically when he observed that poverty may be a good soil for violence: but � he also observed � violence �introduces new imbalances and causes new ruinations�. He concluded by saying that �development is the new name of peace�.

�Peace � he said - is not just the absence of war, fruit of the always precarious balance of forces. It is built day after day, in pursuing an order wanted by God, that implies more perfect justice among people�.

Islam and Christianity can contribute to peace. They are different religions, with different histories, with a different message, with a different relation between religion and society, but for both of them the name of God is peace. Diversity can neither be an occasion for misunderstanding nor for conflict. Rather for harmonious understanding.

In this venue we do not propose an alliance between two religions against somebody or something. It is neither our aim nor our style. For us Christians � for example � dialogue with the humanist and the Jewish world is very important

Rather, on this occasion we want to pursue the common search for ways of peace and we want to say that violence, terrorism will never manage to make the two worlds enemies, distrustful or hostile. These religions come from the furrow of Abraham, our patriarch and of all the believers. This Summit aims at being a further step to the mutual understanding and �we hope � to peace and security for everybody. We trust not only in our efforts but also in the help of Him who can turn to good the plans of people.