“Making peace is harder than making war. And prayer is the only way to make peace”. This was said by card. Roger Etchegaray, Deputy Dean of the College of Cardinals, in an interview with SIR (click here), where he tells about the months of work, 25 years ago, in preparation to the Day of Prayer for Peace, launched by John Paul II on 27th October 1986. “It was something completely new – the cardinal recalls –: there had never been such an initiative before. At the time, one would have to be very brave, I’d say prophetically brave, to bring together religious leaders from all over the world. Since the beginning, the Pope had been concerned about how to invite religious leaders to pray for peace while avoiding not just any syncretism but also any appearance of syncretism”. “Of course, not everyone understood: you know very well that there were oppositions not just from the Catholics but also from Lefrebve’s fundamentalist current that accused the Pope of considering all religions equal”. The preparations lasted 10 months, and in the end – Etchegaray recalls – a huge rainbow appeared in Assisi on that day that encompassed all the city. “John Paul II told me that night: ‘did you see the rainbow? For me it was a big surprise and a big comfort, because in it I saw the sign that God is really with us and is for peace among men’”.

© www.agensir.it - octobert 19th 2011