THE LEUVEN DECLARATION OF THE
SECOND WORLD ASSEMBLY

1974“I walk on thorns, but firmly, as among flowers.”

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The Second World Conference on Religion and Peace,meeting at the University of Leuven/Louvain in thesummer of 1974, longs to speak directly to all religious
communities of our troubled planet.

tradition permits, indeed nurtures, loving respect for theprayer and faithfulness of others. We have contemplated
together the inalienable dignity of every human being, as
it is affirmed by each of our traditions.

Buddhists, Christians, Confucianists, Hindus, Jains,Jews, Muslims, Shintoists, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and stillothers, we have sought here to listen to the spirit within
our varied and venerable religious traditions. Whatever
our religion, we know that we are one with the whole ofhumanity and that all of its problems are our problems.
Our faith compels us to search for effective, viable solutions. We have faced together the enormity of the perilspresently threatening the human species and its home.
We have looked hard at the massive evidence of the political, economic, social, and cultural offenses against humanity that are inherent in the growing world disorder.
We have grappled with the towering issues that our societies must resolve in order to bring about peace, justice,
and an ennobling quality of life for every person andevery people. Drawing upon the inexhaustible resourcesof our spiritual heritages, we have experienced together
the truth expressed by one of the poets in our midst:

We rejoice that through the profound experiences ofconferences like these, and multilateral dialogues undertaken by official religious institutions, the long era ofprideful, and even prejudiced, isolation of the religiousof humanity is, we hope, gone forever. We are resolved
henceforth to serve humanity together, each in the way most in
keeping with the convictions of his spiritual family and local circumstances.

“I walk on thorns, but firmly, as
among flowers.”

We plead with all people of faith and good will to recognize that there is no future for humanity if worldwide
nuclear war is simply postponed or temporarily avoided.
The delicate “balance of terror” has given the superpowers, and all other nations with them, nothing more than areprieve - a little time to correct action to end the nuclear
arms race. We urge that the religions of the world mount every
possible pressure on the nuclear weapons governments to halt theproliferation of destructive nuclear armaments and to roll back all
existing nuclear weaponry until the stockpiles of nuclear devices
have been safely dismantled and destroyed. We also ask all religious bodies to press other governments now capable of initiating
nuclear weapons programs to renounce any such undertaking.

Our debt to the historic First World Conference onReligion and Peace, held in Kyoto, Japan, in 1970, isvery great and gratefully acknowledged. High standards
for the ministry of peace and justice in all religions andlands were set forth at Kyoto, and here in Louvain [Leuven], we have been able to go forward because of theirguidance. Or all the things we learned at Kyoto, none has
marked us more deeply than the discovery that the integrity of the commitment of each to his own religious

War Cannot Be Avoided; It Can Only Be Overcome
Peace can no longer be regarded as an ideal which
may be cherished or discarded at will. It is a practical and
immediate necessity arising out of the present situation
where men have acquired such immense power that they
are now in a position to conquer the stars or to annihilate themselves completely along with the globe they live
on. We therefore dedicate ourselves to work together forthe total abolition of war.

In the four years since our Kyoto Conference, we confess that we have not known how to mobilize religious
people so that they might contribute effectively to theReligions for Peace I 777 United Nations Plaza I New York, NY 10017 USA I 212-6871-2163 I www.religionsforpeace.org

prevention of even limited local or civil wars. Bangladesh, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, the Southern
Philippines, Southern Africa, Cyprus, and Indochina areamong those places where the conflicting forces, including the political decision-makers, are largely composedof members of our various religious communities.
With utmost regret we recognize that the Indochina
War was not ended by the Paris Peace Agreements ofJanuary 1973, and that another hundred thousand Indochinese lives have been lost since that disappointing“peace” was declared. We understand and respect theVietnamese Buddhist campaign cry: “DON’T SHOOTYOUR OWN BROTHER.”
Wherever wars are now going on, we express our deep
sorrow over the suffering of all who are involved evenas we call upon them and their governments to seek alternative solutions through negotiation, mediation, orarbitration, as well as to strive for imperative political,
economic, social, cultural, and moral change by means
more appropriate to their respect for life and their visionof human destiny.
Whatever conscientious religious people decide in respect to theuse of violence, we urge religious leaders everywhere to work ceaselessly in the first instance, for the reduction of the level of violencein all social struggles with the final elimination of violence in favorof peaceful solutions as their firm objective. To respond to violencewith violence without first seeking to eliminate its cause is to embark upon the course of unending escalation.

Liberation plus Development = Peace
Peace is a supreme value for all religions, a state of personal and social existence that, according to all prophetsand teachers, is far more than mere absence of conflict.
The world without war envisaged by our seers is warlessbecause of its health, its wholeness, its intrinsic justice,its at-one ness with the universe. Therefore, those whotruly seek the peace of the nations should begin withthe rigorous spiritual disciplines that bring peace to theirown hearts, peace in their families, peace in their cities,
and peace with the natural world. Such peace is not possible for men and women unless they learn to masterthemselves, sublimate their combative energies into productive channels, refuse to accept enslavement in any
form, and freely offer themselves in the service of theirfellowmen and their eternal lord.
We have come to see human liberation, economic
development, and world peace as a dynamic triangularprocess. People liberating themselves become capableof helping others become free. A truly free people constitutes a productive and cooperative society rather thanan exploitative and domineering overlord among theirneighborhood. All the inhabitants of the globe today
need to progress toward such basic liberation, such genuine self-development, such a harmonious and peaceful world order. Tyrannical systems, elitist ruling groups,
and some transnational economic enterprises - whether
private or governmental - prevent multitudes of people
from participating in the shaping of their own future.
We encourage every religion to arouse its people to seek resolutely
their own integrated liberation and development, and that of theirfellow human beings, near and far. With special insistence weturn to those religious communities that are numerous
among the affluent and powerful nations, requesting thatthey act boldly to end every form of domination among
the African, Asian, and Latin American peoples whether
by their governments or their economic and cultural institutions. We press religious people to condemn profiteering by
the affluent world from the weakness of the developing countries,or the racist oppression of the black majority as in Southern Africa, working for such fair policies in economic and technical aid,
trade, and investment as will help all such peoples pursue their own
developmental way. We specifically ask all nations to implement
the New International Economic Order advocated by the Sixth
Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly, because it is only
through a fundamental restructuring g of the world’s economic system that a just use and distribution of raw resources, trade, andmonetary policies can be achieved.
With a high sense of religious responsibility for thebalanced growth of the human race, we call upon all
religions to work for social, economic, and population
policies in every nation that promise the fullest respect
and opportunity for each child, and the most sensitive
care of the environment on which his life and that ofposterity depends.

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The Rights of Man and the Independence ofReligion
The peace we seek is nowhere more endangered thanin societies ruled by sheer power unlimited by impartial law. Wherever the Universal Declaration of HumanRights is given but lip service or openly scorned, conflicts are repressed rather than resolved, making violent
struggle likely. The United Nations Charter is in harmony with the highest religious insights when it affirms thatthe love of peace is incompatible with the violation ofbasic human rights.
We therefore appeal to religious people in every
kind of social order to meditate, to pray, and to witness
for government policies that will hold inviolate the spiritof man, and guarantee his physical and cultural wellbeing. Where religious communities are surrounded bygrave denials of civil and political rights, or the refusalof social, economic, or cultural justice, we declare oursolidarity with them as they demand freedom for theirpeoples.
Fundamental independence from all earthly powers
and total dependence on the truth that has called theminto being is essential for all religions that would offer afully authentic ministry to society. We therefore ask all
religious bodies to strive for their own freedom fromentangling alliances, covert or overt, that could limit
their freedom to work for the general freedom of man.
Vigilantly maintaining the integrity of their own socialorganizations, religious communities should freely cooperate with all who sincerely seek to advance the causeof justice, peace, and human rights in their own lands
and beyond.
In their own internal life, we urge that religious
communities encourage all those who bear educational
responsibilities to include in the spiritual and moral education of youth an important place for the imperative ofpeace and the means to attain it.
On the worldwide front of the struggle to defend andto enhance the dignity of man, the United Nations andits specialized agencies daily undertake many of the tasks
religious seers have long urged upon mankind.

As the most extensive network of voluntary associations
on the earth, the great religious communities here represented can help the United Nations carry forward its
appointed work in behalf of peace on earth and justiceamong all men.
We call upon the religious communities of the world to press
their governments to ratify the covenants and conventions that alone
can make the United Nations standards operational in the life ofthe nations. Through study and action, we urge these communities
to concern themselves and their governments with the strengtheningof the United Nations. The grave human predicament created by the nuclear threat has recently been aggravatedby the acute environmental crisis. The fear of instantannihilation is now mingled with the anguished visionof the gradual extinction of life through the depletion,
contamination, suffocation of the planet. The dawning
realization that the creation of a right relationship between man and nature is an indispensable part of thestruggle for peace and justice has brought a new dimension to the work of our Conference.
The religious insight that there is an essential interdependence of all being and all things is age-old. Nowwe are still more aware that there must be not war but
profound harmony between the human species and thenatural world. We plead with our religious communities to evokeamong their peoples a fresh sense of awe before the mystery of
existence and a recovery of the value of humble self-restraint in
the conduct of personal and social life. Men and women motivated by religion should provide mankind with a shining example of simplicity of life-style, getting along withminimal dependence on material things and deriving
their happiness from the quality of their spiritual, aesthetic, and cultural pursuits.
But the global challenge of the environmental crisis
calls for technical and policy changes on a planetary scale.
The issues are at once scientific, economic, political, andmoral. Not only the natural environment we have inherited, but the artificial environment we have created, must
now be examined from the spiritual perspective. Religious people, leading personal lives in sensitive respect
for the rights of nature, must also contribute throughtheir choices as citizens and as workers to the development of a new social vision of environmental ethics.

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In cooperation with scientists, government planners, industrial managers, and all those who inform and frompublic opinion, religious thinkers should seek to shapeand implement a technology for contemporary civilization that will safeguard nature and enhance the general
quality of our common life. This great goal will require
the full realization of the productive capacity of every
person and nation in order to give solid meaning to thesocial justice we seek for the world’s burgeoning population. We appeal to the religious communities of the world to inculcate the attitude of planetary citizenship, the sense of our humansolidarity in the just sharing of the food, the energy, and all thematerial necessities which our generous habitat, unlike any otheryet perceived in universal space, will continue faithfully if only it iswell loved and respected by mankind.
As each of us turns to prayer and meditation, we seeka conversion of heart to bring about the spirit of sacrifice, humility, and self-restraint which will further justice, development, liberation, and peace. May the spiritthat has blessed us in the Conference at Louvain touch
all believers who receive this Declaration in churches,gurdawaras, mosques, pagodas, shrines, synagogues, andtemples throughout the earth. May our message become
their message as they address their people. May this callfor action be heard and needed by all those who exercise
power in the public affairs of mankind.

Religions for Peace I 777 United Nations Plaza I New York, NY 10017 USA I 212-6871-2163 I www.religionsforpeace.org