Pope: Christians must work together on peace

GENEVA (AP) — Pope Francis journeyed Thursday to the well-heeled city of Geneva to encourage all Christians, despite their differences, to join in efforts to foster justice and fight poverty while the rich grow “ever more wealthy.”

The pontiff’s day-long “ecumenical pilgrimage” to the lakeside Swiss city that embraced the Protestant Reformation was aimed at stressing what can unite, rather than divide, Christians.

During his visit, Francis met with a group of Korean Protestants, four from the North and four from the South. Their handshakes and smiles built on the pontiff ’s oft-voiced hopes for peace and unity on the Korean Peninsula, especially with the recent summit of US and North Korean leaders.

Francis pitched for greater togetherness at an ecumenical prayer service hosted by the World Council of Churches, which is marking its 70th anniversary this year. The WCC is a fellowship of 350 churches that aims to show the unity of the Christian faith. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member.

Addressing an ecumenical gathering, the Pope said Christians were called to “respond to the cry of all those, in every part of the world, who suffer unjustly from the baleful spread of an exclusion that, by generating poverty, foments conflicts.”

“The more vulnerable are increasingly marginalized, lacking their daily bread, employment and a future, while the rich are fewer and ever more wealthy,” the Pope said. “Let us see what we can do concretely, rather than grow discouraged about what we cannot.”

One of the council officials who addressed Francis, Agnes Abuom of the Anglican church of Kenya, told the pope that she and other women at the gathering had chosen to wear black as a reminder of violence against women. She said they seek to bring an end to the “pestilence” of such violence.

Earlier in the day, the pope told his non-Catholic Christian hosts: “I have desired to come here, a pilgrim in quest of unity and peace. I thank God because here I have found you, brothers and sisters, already making this same journey.”

In his first speech of the day, Francis said that “all you need to do is read history” to see how religious divisions have led to wars and destruction.

But “our differences must not be excuses,” he said, adding that it was possible to “pray, evangelize and serve together.”