Pope Francis' visit to the United States

After visiting Cuba, Pope Francis visited United States to meeting with President Obama and on September 25th, Pope Francis spoke at the UN General Assembly. The pope, who has been receiving a great attention from the world for his messages, spoke about international conflict and war. As the fifth pope to visit the United Nation, I hope that the visit of Pope Francis will alert the international community of the importance of world peace. As conflicts and threats are increasing at this time such as the Civil War in Syria, it is imperative that leaders such as Pope Francis, current presidents, and leaders of UN to take action to solve for world peace.

As HWPL and Chairman Lee travels around the world and host dialogues to promote world peace, more people are recognizing and accepting the importance of world peace. I hope that the renowned political and religious leaders will support and lead the hopes of these people, so that world peace can be possible.

In his speech, Pope Francis talked about the constant effort to avoid war between nations and people. He mentioned the restless dedication of negotiation to reenact a law to prevent these conflicts. At the visit to the White House, the Pope supported President Obama's policy on environment. In his speech, he spent majority of his time also on environmental issues. He said, "Earth is the fruit of love from the Creator and mankind do not have the authority to ruin the environment."

This is true. Both war and environmental issues, such as pollution, will ruin the earth that the Creator created. We are not the Creator of this world, we only dwell in the world because it was given to us by the Creator. However, if we do not respect the world that we live in, what would the Creator think of us? It is rude to misbehave in someone's house or misplace their things, then how should we treat the world? The basic manner applies not only to a friend's house, but to this world.

Inter-Religions Conference at San Jose, CA

Few weeks ago, A conference was held in a suburb of San Francisco. The name of the city adds an additional meaning to the conference, because the city is "Union City". It represents the place where all the religions are united together under one banner of peace. The theme of the conference was "Bring the Unity of Religions". There were about 40 participants from 9 different religions and denominations.

The religious leaders from San Francisco now joins the movement towards world peace and cease of war, as they hold hands in hands under peace. We are now one step closer to peace. A meeting for peace does not require large number or expansive decoration. It only require a dim light that will gather other dim lights to create a brighter light. The gatherings of light will change the world.