Communicating Peace in the Land of Dreams
By Siegrid Raible
The week of September 21st 2015 was a historic week for America and New York City. We began the week with the celebration on September 21, as we do each year, with International Peace Day, a day designated by the UN to embrace and promote peace. Then, three days later, Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, arrived in Washington D.C. and addressed for the first time a joint meeting of Congress.
The pope’s message, from when he first landed on American shores and spoke to our congressional representatives, was of an individual looking to “dialogue with all of you,” from the powerful, members of congress and our president , to the ordinary, the young, the elderly and everyone in-between. After all it is his duty as Pontiff, as he puts it, to build bridges. To him, to bring peace into the world, lines of communication must be opened and even when interrupted as in so many of today’s conflict regions, our political leaders with courage and daring must seize the moment and resume those conversations which have been broken.
Again, at the 911 Memorial where representatives of various faiths joined the Pontiff to commemorate the loss of so many lives fourteen years ago the message was much the same – peace is achieved through dialogue; it is finding the commonalities in the different world religions. Even in this place of great loss and pain, it is possible for people of different faiths to come together to remember the past and build a better future.
So in the spirit of His Holiness let us explore through all the various media available today the commonalities we share so that we can build a more peaceful world.
Let us take the time to listen to one another so that we can build that bridge to a more peace-filled life.
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