Words in the News Monday 24 September 2001 Vocabulary from the news. Listen to and read the report then find explanations of difficult words below.
Pope urges harmony between faiths Summary: At a mass in the Kazakh capital Astana the Pope called for harmony between Christians and Muslims. He urged them to pray for peace as the US continues preparations for military action to combat international terrorism. This report from David Willey:
The turnout at the Pope's mass was disappointing - perhaps 20 or 30 thousand out of an expected 50 thousand people. But it was a major event in this new capital of an independent state of 15 million people. Kazakhstan, a vast territory, broke away from the former Soviet Union only ten years ago and is rarely in the international limelight.
During his homily, the Pope switched from Russian to English in a heartfelt call to both Muslims and Catholics to pray for peace at this moment of international tension. "We mustn't let what's happened lead to a deepening of divisions," the Pope said. "Religion must never be used as a reason for conflict."
But the Pope made no specific reference to the United States, which continues to build up military forces within striking distance of Afghanistan.
Relations between Muslims - who are the largest group of believers in Kazakhstan - and Christians are free of tension here. Catholics are a tiny minority, but they include the descendants of hundreds of thousands of Polish, German and Ukrainian families uprooted by Stalin and sent into exile in the 1930s and '40s to colonise the barren steppe land of Kazakhstan.
