Religious groups urged to ally to fight faith-based violence

Published: 2005-10-13

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With governments and transnational bodies such as the United Nations unable to deal with the role of religion in global violence or uninterested in addressing it, the responsibility falls to religious organizations, especially the Catholic Church, said the Rev. John Danforth, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Speaking Oct. 12 as part of a panel on the role of religion in peacemaking, Rev. Danforth, an ordained Episcopal priest who is also a former U.S. senator from Missouri, said whether religion has been "hijacked" or simply injected into disputes with secular origins, "it still is an element in the divisiveness and bloodshed in the world." While that is nothing new in human history, Rev. Danforth said, "my guess is that of the 200 or so people in this room, probably everybody thinks the proper role of religion is to hold us together. And if at least those of us in this room agree, the first step is to shore up that conclusion."

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