Soka Gakkai Joins Interfaith Discussion on Death Penalty

From October 26 to 28, a Soka Gakkai delegation participated in the International Meeting for Peace, titled “Daring Peace,” an interfaith conference organized by the Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome, Italy. On October 28, at a breakout session, “Justice Does Not Kill: Abolishing the Death Penalty,” Enza Pellecchia of Soka Gakkai Italy and professor of law at the University of Pisa, spoke on the death penalty from a Buddhist perspective, which centers on the dignity of life. She drew on passages from President Daisaku Ikeda and historian Arnold J. Toynbee’s dialogue Choose Life that highlight the inviolable worth of every human being. Following presentations by representatives of other faith traditions, a Q&A session was held.

On October 27, delegation members Soka Gakkai Vice President Hirotsugu Terasaki and Soka Gakkai Italy President Alberto Aprea met with Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, former permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva.