NOLA Interfaith Peace Initiative merits our support

    On behalf of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Archbishop Gregory Aymond signed a covenant with the NOLA Interfaith Peace Initiative Nov. 6 pledging the archdiocese and its churches to join with government, business and community organizations to develop and foster activities that will lead to a more peaceful New Orleans. The archbishop gave the invocation and offered a keynote address:
God is good … all the time. And all the time … God is good..
    We come here tonight because we know God’s goodness, and we ask God in his goodness to be with us.
    Prayer: Loving and faithful God, you have given us the gift of life, and in so doing, long ago you made a covenant with us. You renew that covenant as you call us to love you, to respect the gift of life and to share that gift with others. Tonight we come together as your people, representing many different faith traditions, and we come to renew that covenant with you, that you may give us the wisdom and the enlightenment to build a community, in this great City of New Orleans, that is founded on your values.
    We also wish to make a covenant with parents, that they will continue to form their children in faith and give them the very best love. May we make a covenant with our youth, that they become the peacemakers of our own time.
    We pray for those whose hearts have been broken by violence as they have lost loved ones. Give them peace and consolation. To those who have lost their lives in violence, we pray that they may have eternal life with you. Lord God, we come together with Mayor Landrieu and with various religious leaders, congregations and traditions, and we are one. We claim you as our God. We claim you as the Almighty One and the source of all life. For this, we give you thanks.
    We ask you to bless our gathering and the covenant that we sign. May it be a symbol of our desire and the desire of all of congregations to work together for peace and to renew this great, historic city. We ask that as our names are written on this covenant, may they also be written in your heart. Help us – with our hands and hearts and voices – to foster peace and reconciliation.
    We truly believe that your covenant is your dream for us. May we accept your dream, and may we live it out. For you are God, living and reigning forever. Amen.
    Address: We remember with great reverence Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King. He said he had a dream that one day people would be able to look beyond color, race, culture and labels and have a mutual respect that would change our world. He knew his dream was not original. It was the dream of God. He was able to challenge the church in our own time.
    We come together tonight and we want to be able to proclaim that dream in such a way that people will not any longer settle arguments with a gun or a knife or barbed words but with kindness and respect. And that can happen, if the church says “Amen.”
    The problem is that sometimes we see violence and murder so much in our newspapers and on television that I’m afraid – and I hope I’m wrong – that sometimes we become immune to the feelings. It becomes another person, just another statistic – and that’s not the dream of God.
    The dream of God is that we see each person whose life is taken and that we see the other people in their family, the community and beyond and say that we want to stand strong. We say we cannot become immune to this murder and violence and the racism that exists among us. We cannot become immune. We must think of each person.
    John Paul II said faith is never a private matter – it’s always to be shared with others. We come together as various faith communities, realizing that our faith in God is not a private matter. We want to go forth and share that, and we are willing to go forth and be a light amid the dark moments that we sometimes find in our community. We can become that light.
    And so tonight, we sign a covenant. We renew our efforts to bring peace and reconciliation to this community. We renew our efforts to bring about the dream of God for us and with us.
    We know it won’t be easy, but we’re willing to sign that covenant to do so.
    Is this dream possible? It is. It is especially possible if we are willing to strengthen family life. As we strengthen family life, we strengthen this community, our city and ourselves.
    May the covenant that we sign tonight be pleasing in the sight of God and help us to be a light in the darkness.
    Questions for Archbishop Aymond may be sent to [email protected].