Pope urges Catholics to promote peace in Indonesia

Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholics in Indonesia on Friday to defend tolerance, peace and the rights of minorities, saying that the country's constitution "guarantees" freedom of worship

Meeting with Indonesian Catholic bishops in Rome, Benedict encouraged them to "strengthen Indonesian society by promoting those values that your fellow citizens hold dear: tolerance, unity and justice for all citizens."

A recent report from the International Crisis Group in Brussels said that recent clashes between Christians and Muslims and attacks by Islamists on Christian churches had revived fears of wider violence between communities.

The pope did not discuss accusations from the head of the Conference of Indonesian Bishops, Martinus Dogma Situmorang, in the Vatican's Osservatore Romano daily, who denounced impunity for Islamists attacking Christians.

Benedict's speech concentrated on the need to preserve religious pluralism in the world's most populated majority Muslim country.

"Appropriately, Indonesias constitution guarantees the fundamental human right of freedom to practice ones religion," he said.

Islam is practised by around 80 percent of the population in Indonesia but is not the state religion, unlike in many other predominantly Muslim countries. Only five percent of Indonesians are Protestants and three percent are Catholics.

Catholics should "promote and sustain interreligious dialogue" and be "agents of peace, perseverance and charity".

"Believers in Christ, rooted in charity, ought to be committed to dialogue with other religions, respecting mutual differences," he added.

Source : AFP