The “spirit of Assisi” is blowing into the European city where religion was the excuse for the largest massacre since the Second World War.
In September, Bishop Irinej of Backam, Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Serbia, will attend the next interfaith meeting of the Community of Sant’Egidio, scheduled to run in the Bosnian capital from 9 to 11 September.
His participation is an historic event, says Bishop of Terni, Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia: “We’d like to start from Sarajevo, where the twentieth century has been defined by the great suffering caused by war.”
For his part, the Archbishop of Sarajevo, Cardinal Vinko Puljic, highlights the widespread cooperation between different religions, the largest since the tragic war of 1992, and notes that “even if religion is not a political party or a financial lobby,” in today’s world it is “not weak – it has the power of prayer and faith which, through sincere dialogue, can make the world more human.”
Cardinal Puljic is a symbolic figure of the bomb siege that devastated the city – once known as the “Jerusalem of Europe” - during the period from 1992 to 1995. He is the head of the Church in a land of war, inextricably intertwined with the history of this region, and is the bringer of a message of hope, trust, and openness, “despite everything.”
Emir Kovacevic has also committed to the full participation and cooperation of the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Elma Softic-Kaunitz expresses the Jewish community’s willingness to work together for the big project in September.
So, the 26th annual World Prayer for Peace - the historic day of prayer initiated by Blessed John Paul II in 1986 - will be held in Sarajevo, in the spirit of Assisi. Participants will include representatives of the various Bosnian religious communities.
The event, which will be attended by hundreds of religious leaders from all denominations, and personalities from the world of culture and politics of more than 60 countries, is actually being organized by the Community and the Archdiocese of Vrhbosna-Sarajevo, in close collaboration with the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate, the Islamic Community, and the Jewish Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
At its inaugural launch last year in Monaco, the Auxiliary Bishop of Sarajevo, Msgr. Pero Sudar, and the head of the Islamic Community of Bosnia, Mustafa Ceric, together issued an invitation to attend the event in the Bosnian capital this year, the twentieth anniversary of the outbreak of war (1992-95).
The meeting will help, said the Cardinal of Sarajevo, to ensure “that this fractured city produces not just a symbol but a real strategy for peace.”
In addition to “praying, each according to their own tradition, for God’s help in building the future,” the Archbishop of Sarajevo said, “we want, in addressing the most urgent issues of today’s society, coexistence and peace, cultural exchange, to know each other better, accept each other, respect each other, and work together for equal rights in this land.”
“The religious have no armies, no banks, no political party power,” said former chaplain of the Community of Sant'Egidio (known as the “UN of Trastevere’”), Msgr. Paglia, “but religions have the power to reach the heart, and we want touch the hearts of everyone, because we need to work together to reshape the future of this land.”
The prelate recalled that almost one hundred years ago, in 1914, Sarajevo was the setting for the beginning of World War I, and hoped that the September meeting “will really be the dawn of a new century.”
Orthodox Bishop of Backa and Novi Sad, Irinej Bulovic, believes that the idea of organizing this great event of religious and political dialogue deserves great “respect and congratulations.”
The bishop recalled how all the sacred books of the great monotheistic religions contain a single, ancient greeting: “peace be with you”.
“This centrality of peace as a synonym of mutual acceptance, respect, and, ultimately, human love, is what inspired the organizers of these meetings,” said the bishop, who announced that the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, will participate in the September meeting.
The synagogue is located a few hundred meters from the Catholic Cathedral, the Orthodox Church, and the Mosque.
The Jews arrived in Sarajevo in 1492 after being expelled from Catholic Spain. Just before 1500, a group of Sephardic Jews, at the end of a long pilgrimage, sought refuge here. Initially, because of the difference in language and religious tradition, they were not very well received.
To calm people without having to expel the Jews, Bej Sijavus Pasha granted them a space where, in 1581, the first Jewish synagogue was built. But this building was destroyed by two fires: the first in 1697 was caused by Eugene of Savoy’s burning of the city, and the second occurred in 1788. The current building was reconstructed in 1821.
Covered in stone, it is surrounded by a beautiful courtyard and located on a secluded and quiet street, just steps from Ferhadija.
And what about Islamic Bosnia today? “In our language, we tend to simplistically reduce Islam, but it is really quite complex,” Khaled Fouad Allam, one of the leading experts on Muslim issues, tells Vatican Insider.