Pope Benedict XVI has made his first papal visit to Assisi, where he issued a "pressing and heartfelt appeal" for an end to "all armed conflicts that are bloodying the earth", writes Robert Mickens. He especially focused on "the Holy Land, so loved by St Francis," the thirteenth-century native of Assisi who founded what became the Franciscan movement. "May arms fall silent and may everywhere hatred give way to love," the Pope said last Sunday during a visit to mark the eight hundredth anniversary of St Francis' conversion.

Pope Benedict called Assisi a "city of peace" and paid tribute to Pope John Paul II for calling leaders of different religions there in 1986 to pray for world peace.  "It was a prophetic intuition and moment of grace," said the Pope, who - as a Vatican cardinal at the time - deliberately did not attend the interreligious gathering. He said the light of St Francis had shone on the event as "a guarantee of Christian authenticity", protecting a priori from "any temptation towards religious indifferentism, which could have nothing to do with authentic interreligious dialogue". The Pope said that St Francis was a "true teacher" of peace, dialogue and concern for the environment, but pointed out that this was all due to the saint's radical adherence to Christ.

Pope John Paul II proclaimed St Francis the patron of ecology in 1979, but Pope Benedict said he was more than that. He told the priests and religious of Assisi that they had to do more to help the "millions of pilgrims" to see that "it's not enough that they admire Francis". Through the saint they "must be able to encounter Christ in order to profess and love him". He said St Francis "suffered a sort of mutilation" when people used him merely as a symbol for values appreciated by the modern culture, but forgot that the heart of his life was his choice for Christ.

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