"A Religious Leader Who Preaches Violence is Neither A Leader Nor Religious"

"A Religious Leader Who Preaches Violence is Neither A Leader Nor Religious"

Andrea Riccardi, Founder of SantEgidio Community Speaks to ZENIT on the Need For Interreligious Dialogue

A conference was held yesterday in the Hall of Congresses of the Sant’ Egidio Community, which gathered representatives of the Catholic Church and Shi’ite institutions. The participants addressed the topic of the “responsibility of believers in a global and plural world” and dialogue for the building of peace, at an historical moment marked by many crises and conflicts on the international scene.
Speaking to ZENIT, Professor Andrea Riccardi, founder and former president of Sant’Egidio Community, said: “I think that between different worlds we must discover one another: today either there is friendship or there is conflict, It’s no longer possible to ignore one another.”
During his intervention at the end of the conference, Riccardi asserted: “a religious leader that preaches violence is neither a leader nor religious.”


http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/a-religious-leader-who-preaches-violence-is-neither-a-leader-nor-religious