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Later in the day, participants came together under a tent, where several prominent figures read out a series of pledges.

Patriarch Bartholomeos declared: "Although we belong to different religious traditions, we affirm that building peace requires loving one's neighbor in obedience to the golden rule: 'Do to others what you would have them do to you'."

Konrad Raiser affirmed: "We commit ourselves to proclaiming our firm conviction that violence and terrorism are incompatible with the authentic spirit of religion, and, as we condemn every recourse to violence and war in the name of God or religion, we commit ourselves to doing everything possible to eliminate the root causes of terrorism."

Other pledges were made by other Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Confucian leaders.

Pope John Paul concluded the ceremony, saying: "Violence never again! War never again! Terrorism never again! In the name of God, may every religion bring upon the earth justice and peace, forgiveness and life, love!"

While religious representatives shared a meal together Friday at the Vatican, the Italian press made its assessment of the "day of Assisi."

"The Pope: 'no' to terror in the name of God," wrote La Stampa of Turin, adding that the Pope, "in spite of advice to the contrary," had wanted the meeting at Assisi "to demonstrate the risks facing humanity and the need to form a united front to promote dialogue and prayer."

La Repubblica of Rome hoped that the next inter-religious summit would take place in Jerusalem: "Sometimes it's necessary to force fate, break protocol, shuffle calendars. Since it's a question of saving innocent people who die every day on Palestinian, on Israeli land—people who would rather live together than die together."

Copyright © 2002 ENI

The official Vatican site includes a page on the Assisi Day of Peace that includes photos, video, and text of prayers and readings.

Media coverage of the Assisi prayer meeting includes:

Pope's gathering for peace ends — Associated Press (Jan. 25, 2002)

Pope denounces violence in religion's name — The New York Times(Jan. 25, 2002)

World religious leaders join Pope in a peace prayer — The Los Angeles Times (Jan. 25, 2002)

Faith groups gather in Assisi to seek peace — The Christian Science Monitor (Jan. 24, 2002)

Pope leads world prayer day — BBC (Jan. 24, 2002)

Pope invites world's religious leaders to Assisi for peace prayers — The Nando Times (Nov. 18, 2001)

Pope calls Assisi peace meeting — BBC (Nov. 18, 2001)

For more articles, see Yahoo's full coverage.

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January (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46