{"id":9273,"date":"2025-11-03T06:47:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T21:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/?p=9273"},"modified":"2026-02-07T16:30:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T07:30:52","slug":"at-romes-colosseum-faith-leaders-confront-a-world-at-war-and-dare-to-speak-of-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/news\/at-romes-colosseum-faith-leaders-confront-a-world-at-war-and-dare-to-speak-of-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"At Rome\u2019s Colosseum, Faith Leaders Confront a World at War \u2014 and Dare to Speak of Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Colosseo
Colosseo Credit: Kevin Lin, INPS Japan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
By Katsuhiro Asagiri<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

ROME\/TOKYO \uff08INPS Japan\uff09- <\/strong>In the shadow of Rome\u2019s Colosseum \u2014 once a monument to imperial violence \u2014 religious leaders from across the world gathered this week to deliver a message that felt both ancient and urgent: peace must once again become humanity\u2019s sacred duty. \uff5cJAPANESE<\/a>\uff5cCHINESE<\/a>\uff5c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The occasion was \u201cDare Peace,\u201d<\/em> the International Meeting for Peace: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue, hosted by the Community of Sant\u2019Egidio<\/a>. For three days, priests, rabbis, imams, monks and scholars debated what it means to uphold faith in an era defined by fear, nationalism and war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting concluded Tuesday evening with Pope Leo XIV presiding over a ceremony that was equal parts prayer service and political statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWar is never holy,\u201d the pope said. \u201cOnly peace is holy \u2014 because it is willed by God.\u201d<\/em><\/sup><\/sub><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A Call for Moral Courage<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Speaking beneath the Arch of Constantine, Pope Leo urged governments and believers alike to resist what he called \u201cthe arrogance of power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe world thirsts for peace,\u201d he said. \u201cWe cannot allow people to grow accustomed to war as a normal part of human history. Enough \u2014 this is the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth.\u201d<\/em><\/sup><\/sub><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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\"Hirotsugu
Hirotsugu Terasaki, vice president of Soka Gakkai with Pope Leo XIV. Credit: Vatican News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The crowd, several thousand strong, included representatives of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Among them was Hirotsugu Terasaki, vice president of Soka Gakkai<\/a>, a Buddhist organization with a long record of peace advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They stood together in silence as candles were lit around the ancient amphitheater \u2014 small lights flickering against the stone, symbolic of a shared prayer for reconciliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faith and Accountability<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The pope\u2019s speech drew a clear line between faith and political responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cPeace must be the priority of every policy,\u201d he said. \u201cGod will hold accountable those who failed to seek peace \u2014 for every day, month and year of war.\u201d<\/sup><\/sub><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Those words, delivered as fighting continues in Ukraine and Gaza, carried a deliberate edge. The Vatican under Leo XIV has increasingly positioned itself as a moral counterweight to political paralysis on global crises \u2014 speaking of peace not as abstraction but as obligation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lessons From Assisi<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n
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\"Pope
Pope John Paul II Credit: Gregorini Demetrio, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This year\u2019s meeting marked nearly four decades since John Paul II convened the first interreligious gathering for peace in Assisi in 1986. Since then, the Sant\u2019Egidio Community has maintained that dialogue among faiths can temper political divides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe have dared to speak of peace in a world that speaks the language of war,\u201d said Marco Impagliazzo, the group\u2019s president. \u201cTo close the paths of dialogue is madness. As Pope Francis said, the world suffocates without dialogue.\u201d<\/em><\/sup><\/sub><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Session on the Dignity of Life<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Earlier Tuesday, Soka Gakkai delegation took part in Session 22 titled \u201cJustice Does Not Kill: Abolishing the Death Penalty,\u201d<\/em> held at the Austrian Cultural Forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Enza Pellecchia of the University of Pisa, representing Soka Gakkai, took the stage and spoke about the movement\u2019s efforts to abolish the death penalty, referring to the words of its founder, President Daisaku Ikeda, from his dialogue with the British historian Dr. Arnold Toynbee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe sanctity of life cannot be judged by guilt or merit \u2014 all lives are equal. Therefore, no one has the right to take a life, even in the name of justice. Accepting the death penalty is a form of institutionalized violence that assigns different values to human life, and President Ikeda has described it as \u2018a manifestation of the prevailing tendency in modern times to devalue life\u201d .<\/em><\/sup><\/sub><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"Professor
Professor Enza Pellecchia of the University of Pisa, representing Soka Gakkai, delivering her speech during the Forum titled \u201cJustice Does Not Kill: Abolishing the Death Penalty,\u201d<\/em> held at the Austrian Cultural Forum. Credit: Seikyo Shimbun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Professor Pellecchia said that President Ikeda\u2019s humanistic philosophy deeply resonates with Pope Leo XIV\u2019s recent statement that \u201cone cannot claim to be pro-life while accepting the death penalty or any form of violence.\u201d Both, she noted, confront the same moral error \u2014 the belief that some lives are expendable.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Religion Refuses Silence<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For decades, the Colosseum has hosted symbolic gatherings for peace. Yet this year\u2019s ceremony, participants said, carried a sharper urgency. The wars in Europe and the Middle East, the displacement of millions, and rising authoritarianism have all given moral language new weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cPeace begins with the transformation of the human heart,\u201d said Terasaki of SGI. \u201cInterfaith cooperation is not symbolic \u2014 it\u2019s a method for changing history.\u201d<\/em><\/sup><\/sub><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A Plea That Still Echoes<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As night fell, the trumpeter Paolo Fresu performed a mournful solo. Children stepped forward to deliver a Peace Appeal<\/em> to diplomats and officials \u2014 a reminder that the next generation will inherit the choices made now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pope\u2019s final words were brief, almost whispered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cGod wants a world without war. He will free us from this evil.\u201d<\/em><\/sup><\/sub><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The candles continued to burn as the crowd dispersed \u2014 a fragile constellation of light against the ruins of Roman empire, and a quiet act of defiance in a world still learning to dare peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is brought to you by INPS Japan<\/a> in collaboration with Soka Gakkai International<\/a>, in consultative status with the UN\u2019s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INPS Japan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related articles: International Meeting for Peace Features\u00a0Interfaith Dialogue on Death Penalty Abolition<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Katsuhiro Asagiri ROME\/TOKYO \uff08INPS Japan\uff09- In the shadow of Rome\u2019s Colosseum \u2014 once a monument to imperial violence \u2014 religious leaders from across the world gathered this week to deliver a message that felt both ancient and urgent: peace must once again become humanity\u2019s sacred duty. \uff5cJAPANESE\uff5cCHINESE\uff5c The occasion was \u201cDare Peace,\u201d the International […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,42,16,32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture-art-religion","8":"category-europe","9":"category-news","10":"category-regions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9273"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9694,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9273\/revisions\/9694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}