Catholic World News

Ecumenical Patriarchate decries violence in the name of religion

August 16, 2012

Lamenting the “resurgence of violence currently spreading throughout the world,” the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople--the Eastern Orthodox see that holds the primacy of honor--issued a statement on August 14 denounced “barbaric acts” such as “ethnic cleansing, anti-Semitism, [and] destruction of places of worship,” particularly when these acts “are masked with the veil of religion in an effort to justify them.”

Citing conflicts in Nigeria, Sudan, and Syria, the Patriarchate stated that

religious leaders should be working together, through dialogue, to affirm God's peace in the world. We, as religious leaders, have a moral obligation to resist war and promote peace as a vital and fundamental necessity for all humanity. Religion cannot and should never be a basis for war and conflict, nor should it be used as an instrument of fundamentalism and fanaticism for purely political motives and ends. With great resolve, we have repeatedly emphasized that any crime in the name of religion is a crime against religion.

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