BENEDICT XVI REFUSES TO DO INTERFAITH PRAYERS

Guest Tue 01 Nov 2011, 18:37

Prophetic Intelligence Briefings

Benedict XVI Refuses to do Interfaith Prayers · November 01, 2011

On the 25th anniversary of the first daylong prayer for peace in the town of Assisi, Italy, Pope Benedict XVI presided over 300 religious leaders representing a “rainbow of faiths.”

“But unlike the 1986 event and successive ones in 1993 and 2002, there was no time given for any type of communal prayer. Benedict had objected to the 1986 event and didn’t attend because he disapproved of members of different faiths praying in the presence of one another.”

Benedict opposes “religious relativism,” or religious pluralism, hence his version of the day of prayer did not give the appearance of combining different beliefs and practices.

Being the consummate Catholic theologian, Benedict XVI teaches and defends the idea that there is only one true religion, the Roman Catholic faith and that all others are illegitimate.

Benedict said that “nations are still full of discord and that religion is now frequently being used to justify violence,” which is often religiously motivated. But he said that it was wrong however, to “demand that faith disappear from daily life to somehow rid the world of a religious pretext for violence. He argued that the absence of God from people’s daily lives was even more dangerous, since it deprived men and women of any moral criteria to judge their actions.”

The Pope’s “removal of any communal prayer time — other than grace at the start and end of lunch — struck some as overkill. But the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and one of the first speakers at the peace meeting, said the delegates weren’t gathered there to come to a ‘minimum common ground of belief.’ Rather, he said, the meeting would show the world that… different faiths provide the wisdom to draw upon in the struggle for peace.”

Everything from Nigeria’s Yoruba religion, to Buddhism, Shinto and Hindu religions, to Greek, Russian, Serbian and Belarusian Orthodox churches, were present, plus Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Jewish and Muslims. In addition there were Taoists, Jains and even a Zoroastrian in attendance.

“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him.” Revelation 13:8.

Rainbow of religious leaders join pope for peace