Global Peace Leadership Conference
August 11-14, 2012
Seoul, Korea
Theme: “The Future Vision of a Unified Korean Peninsula, and Building a World of Peace”
His Eminence Cardinal Gaudencio Borbon Rosales, is Archbishop Emeritus of Manilaand presiding patron of the Alllight Village Project in the Philippines.
Good evening everyone.
The fact that we gather here this evening, and the coming few more days, is a demonstration of the truth that everyone is interested in peace, those who are here and those who are not here yet. Because peace is not an accomplishment of one man. Peace is not the accomplishment of one group. Peace is everyone’s concern and we are trying to discover it in this world, in this peninsula, in this part of the world.
There are disagreements and lack of cooperation; call it the lack of peace. We are trying to discover where is that common ground where everyone who is interested in peace can be located and all will gather. This is a task that faces us in this coming five days.
Come to think about it, although it’s not the work of one man, it’s everybody’s concern. Nevertheless it starts with every man. Not only starting with every man, but that man or woman, that person, needs the strength that does not come from himself. Peace is not the achievement of victory. Peace is not the result of a triumphant battle. Peace starts with trying to locate that common ground.
And that is why we are here. Tomorrow we listen to the interventions and see whether it can help to local common ground. The ground we are talking of is not physical, not material. The ground we’re looking for is in the heart of everyone.
And so we come, and as the guidance of my colleagues said: one family, yes, one family under one God. There is only one God, and many families. How to regroup, that has been the concern of this globe we live in.
I’m sure you have all been welcomed here already. You represent groups, interests, commitments, ideas, and parties. Since we are looking for that, under the guidance of the Almighty, I ask a communal commitment for all of us here, three things: support, encourage, and accompany the efforts for peace – here, there, north, south, east, west, up, down, everywhere.
