ASSISI, Italy, Jan. 24 - Pope John Paul II today convened an unusual one-day gathering of leaders of a dozen religions, including Muslims, Jews and Christians, to affirm his belief that "whoever uses religion to foment violence contradicts religion's deepest and truest inspiration."
The pope, who often uses symbolism to promote his causes, convened the meeting in the shadow of the Basilica of St. Francis, whom he described as a "singular prophet of peace," in this Umbrian hill town where the saint was born.
John Paul, 81, had announced his intention in November to hold such a gathering in the aftermath of the terror attacks in the United States. He concluded the day of prayer and reflection tonight with words from the early Christian theologian St. Cyprian that evoked the destruction in New York.
"Let us pray to the heavenly father," the pope told the roughly 250 leaders from a white throne. "Let us implore him as befits those who weep over the ruins, and who fear for what remains standing."
The religious leaders, who gathered on a broad square next to the 13th-century basilica, included representatives of native African religions, Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as obscure religions like Zoroastrianism.
From those representatives of religions that have spent centuries waring with each other, the pope sought affirmation of the belief that there was "no religious goal that can possibly justify the use of violence by man against man."
The pope managed to gather a number of major Islamic and Jewish religious leaders despite continuing violence in the Middle East. About a dozen Jewish leaders attended, including ones from Israel and major Jewish organizations. More than 30 Muslim religious leaders came from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt.
Partly, the pope was calling in credits from Muslim and Jewish leaders. Ever since the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, the Vatican has made interfaith healing part of church teaching. John Paul, whose 24-year tenure is the longest in the 20th century, has visited Israel and major Muslim countries to promote mutual understanding. He is the first pope to enter and pray in a mosque and a synagogue.
But he also reaped the benefit of his efforts to heal the rift between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. The Russian Orthodox Church, which resists overtures by the pope, sent a high-level delegation led by Pitirim, the vicar of the patriarch of Moscow and third-ranking official in the Orthodox hierarchy.
Many signs of that lingering mistrust were evident. Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, who represents Catholics in Ukraine who remain loyal to the pope, said his flock had reacted "with apprehension" to his attendance. Ukrainian Catholics, who were persecuted in the Soviet Union, mistrust Russian Orthodoxy, which they say benefited at their expense.
"The idea of praying together with someone of other faiths strikes them as too much," the cardinal said of his faithful. "They have suffered for being Catholic."
Muslim leaders took the occasion to support the Palestinian cause. Sheik al-Azhar Muhammad Tantawi, the grand sheik of Al Azhar mosque and Islamic center in Cairo, in a statement read in Arabic, thanked the Vatican for "honorable support of the Palestinian people." The leaders accompanied John Paul on a special papal train from Rome and returned late today.
After the assembly, the leaders separated to pray for peace. John Paul led Catholic clergy in the lower church of the basilica, clad with frescos by Giotto depicting the life of St. Francis; in rooms nearby, Jewish leaders stood in prayer while Muslims knelt on rugs on the stone pavement. The Zoroastrians lighted a bonfire in front of the basilica.
Clearly, a principal motive for the pope's convening the gathering was the claim by the Islamic fundamentalists who carried out the attacks on the United States that they had acted in God's name. The only speaker to mention the terrorists was Israel Singer, president of the governing board of the World Jewish Congress. He referred to the "way in which on Sept. 11 of last year madmen, who claimed to be acting in the name of religion," attacked the United States.
John Paul mentioned the attacks in his opening remarks when he welcomed Cardinal Edward Egan as "archbishop of New York, the city so terribly affected by the tragic events of Sept. 11." Cardinal Egan, speaking with reporters, said, "This is an attempt of the Holy Father to bring various faiths together in order to alert the world to the need to put an end to the conflict that is troubling us right now."
Bartholomew I, the patriarch of Constantinople and spiritual leader of all the Orthodox around the world, said in an interview that there was a common interest and will, among the different religious leaders, to contain violence and, "in order to do that, help our faithful to rediscover the real essence of religion, beyond prejudices and national or ethnic differences."
"There is a momentum for that, after what we saw last September," he said.