Holy Father Pope Francis met 17 leaders of Myanmar’s religious communities at the Archbishop’s house in Yangon and encouraged them that peace consists in unity in diversity, not in uniformity. His Holiness addressed the leaders off-hand in Spanish with the help of an interpreter and reflected on the Bible verse from Psalms which says, “How beautiful it is to see brothers united!” (Psalms 133:1)
As reported by news.va, Holy Father Pope Francis remarked that “Unity is not uniformity, even within a religious community, each one has his values, his riches are also shortcomings and we are all different. Each confession has its riches and traditions to give and share and this can happen only if all live in peace.” Further, His Holiness added, “Peace consists in a chorus of differences and Unity comes about in differences.”
His Holiness urged that religious leaders should understand the richness of our differences –ethnic, religious or popular and what results from these differences is dialogue. Holy Father concluded his remarks by appealing to build peace without allowing yourselves to be uniformed by the colonization of cultures.
