Pope condemns terrorist 'plague'

Pope John Paul II was speaking in Rome

VATICAN CITY, Rome -- Pope John Paul II has said the world has to be spared the "wicked plague of terrorism."

Speaking to pilgrims and tourists in St Peter's Square on Sunday, he also said the search for peace could not be divorced from the application of justice.

He asked the world's Roman Catholics to pray throughout October "for peace, so that the world may be spared from the wicked plague of terrorism."

The 81-year-old pope encouraged Catholics to be "on the front lines in the search for justice, in banishing violence and in being agents of peace."

He said: "The terrible tragedy of last September 11 will be remembered as a dark day in the history of humanity. Certainly peace is not divorced from justice but it must always be fed by clemency and love."

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He called for the banning of violence and asked for prayers so that "hate and death never have the last word."

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks in the U.S. the pope offered prayers to America and urged those affected by the terrorist attacks to show restraint and commit themselves to peace.

Following Sunday's sermon, a weary-looking Pope John Paul opened a meeting of bishops from around the world.

The month-long bishops' synod is part of the pope's strategy to invigorate the Catholic church at the start of Christianity's third millennium.

The Vatican official in charge of the synod, Cardinal Jan Schotte, has predicted that there will be discussion about the primacy, or supreme role, of the pontiff, both with respect to other Christian confessions as well as internally in the Catholic church.

John Paul himself has acknowledged that the papal primacy has been a stumbling block in his quest for closer relations with other Christians, notably Orthodox Christians.

The pope has issued an encyclical on the question, but has made no concrete proposals on how to deal with it.

Up to 270 delegates, including bishops and cardinals from around the world, are attending the gathering.