“Against intolerance”: that’s the title of an editorial signed by Michel Kubler in La Croix of 30/10, on the day following the massacre of Christians in the church at Bahawalpur, in Pakistan. According to Kubler, “the massacre of Pakistani Christians by Islamic fundamentalists (…) reveals a doubly symbolic force. First of all, because both the victims and the perpetrators were believers: the former were killed due to their faith, at the very moment in which they were celebrating their cult. For the most part, the victims were Protestants who had been welcomed into a Catholic church, and were assassinated because they were confused with their hosts: this noble example of ecumenical hospitality seems therefore to have been at the origin of their tragic fate”. In a similar context Kubler notes the temptation to transform everything into a conflict between religions “is great”, and many Westerners fall into the trap, “all too happy to see in it an argument for their anti-Moslem resentment“. How should we react, therefore? “By relating things to their reality, and not to our prepossessions”, is the reply. A “supplementary way” of reacting, the editorial says, is that – also recommended by John Paul II of “responding to intolerance with an effort of knowledge: deepening our understanding of religions in order to establish between them a dialogue worthy of that name”. “The conduct of the war alarms Europe” is the headline on the front page of Le Monde of 31/10, which underlines the fact that the Fifteen “are expressing their disquiet” and “questioning the American strategy in Afghanistan”. Also on its front page, the French daily publishes an enquiry on Islamic proselytism in the French regions and reveals: “The radical Islamists involved in terrorist networks profit from their detention in prison to recruit adepts“. The anonymous testimony of a French detainee, of Algerian origin, imprisoned for common crime, sums up the “recruitment strategy” adopted by the Islamists as follows: “ Pressures on the weaker inmates, wearing them down through a rigorous practice of Islam, antisemitic and anti-Western indoctrination through the circulation of prohibited cassettes and books”. A “new phase” in the American military offensive in Afghanistan is discussed by Joseph Fitchett in the Herald Tribune of 31/10, pointing out that the “the prime objective” is the capture of Mazar-i-Sharif, “a town strategically situated in northern’Afghanistan close to the border with Uzbekistan (…). The Pentagon has carefully avoided offering any public programme to take control of the main towns in northern Afghanistan”. “Crisis of fear: psychology of a recession” is the enquiry that gives its title to the Spiegel of 29/10. It includes an interview by Michaela Schiessl of the Nobel Prize Winner Milton Friedman in which the distinguished economist affirms: “war is a friend of governments. In periods of war the power of governments grows” and they take greater control of the economy. Businessmen, on the contrary, “are the enemies of a free society; every enterprise is a great danger for governments, which in the end they use for their own ends.” The problem of refugees is addressed by the journalist Dirk Kurbjuweit in an article in the same magazine: “The battle of the goodies” recounting the daily struggle of aid workers to bring humanitarian aid to Afghan refugees. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 27/10 dedicates an editorial by Heinz-Joachim Fischer to the Synod of Bishops, after its conclusion. Under the title “A totally conscious tranquillity“, Fischer argues that a certain dissatisfaction of German bishops is emerging and Cardinal Lehmann, summing up the impressions of the Synod, admits he “has become more prudent”. “More prudent in his judgement concerning the fact that the needs, the desires of reform and the remonstrances of one national Church are not the same as another, indeed that these would not be understood in another continent… This means, translated into German, that what is complained about by German-speaking Catholics is gauged with more neutral criteria in the universal Church” . “But if one speaks confidentially with Church leaders or with the Vatican authorities Fischer continues it emerges that efforts are being made to resolve the problems and that some ideas for their solution” are being found . On the other hand, in Fischer’s view, “the feeling that under John Paul II the ship of the Church has found its right course is sufficient for the cardinals and bishops”.
