Pope Condemns Use of Religion for Violence

.c The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope John Paul II received Muslim, Orthodox
Christian and Jewish religious leaders from Azerbaijan, calling their
visit Thursday a symbol of tolerance and declaring that religion must
never be used for violent aims.

“No one has the right to present or use religion as an instrument of
intolerance, as a means of aggression, of violence, of death,” the
pope told the group.

Christians, Muslims and Jews must appeal together for an end to
violence in the world “with justice for all,” he said.

“This is the way of religions,” he said.

The audience was scheduled to repay the pope’s 2002 trip to
Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic and mainly Muslim nation with a
Roman Catholic population of only 300 people.

The Vatican said the pope wanted to hold up Azerbaijan as an example
of coexistence and cooperation among religions and express hope that
“a full peace in the spirit of reconciliation” may be achieved in
the region – a reference to the country’s conflict with Armenia over
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave.

A cease-fire ended fighting in 1994 after some 30,000 people were
killed and more than 1 million people fled their homes.

11/18/04 09:16 EST