When others have their festivities

From Turkey to Albania, nations with a Muslim majority, two testimonials of dialogue and religious tolerance: an answer to the ascetic correctness typical of certain Western lay cultures, too hurried in asking for the removal of traditions and means of worship to not offend another’s religious sensitivities. Writing this from Istanbul is Father Ruben Tierrablanca, animator of an ecumenical fraternity in the Turkish city of Scutari (per Fides), and Father Flavio Cavallini, ex provincial minister of the Friars Minor of Albania. TURKEY. “One can understand that after Benedict XVI visit to Turkey, we lived the period of Advent and Christmas here in Turkey with great enthusiasm. We realized how many details are lived behind the scenes; everybody active in their service, we were witnesses of the cordiality and joy that the Pope manifested every moment, the familiarity with which the guards, photographers, translators and every person during his travels were greeted. In Turkey, the Christmas festivities, which will end on the Epiphany, are not felt as deeply as in our nations of origin. Here, the shops and the municipalities welcome the new year 2007 and the Muslim religious propaganda promotes the spirit of “kurban bayram” (the feast of the sacrifice … by Abraham of his son Isaac). However this year, Christmas brought along an encounter of dialogue and tolerance. A few days ago the Mayor of our municipality of Beyoglu, Ahmet Misbah Demircan, announced his visit to our church to greet the Christian faithful at the end of Mass. We then found out that he did the same with the other two Catholic churches in the area. Therefore, after singing the “Kalenda Nativitatis” and the Christmas Mass, Ahmet Misbah came to greet the people at the assembly, wishing the Christians of the municipality “iyi Noeler!” (“Merry Christmas”) and inviting them to continue in the construction of a city where friendship, respect and the joy of living together will prevail. Already in the past years, Ahmet Misbah demonstrated his friendship and congeniality by sending Christmas gifts to all the faithful of the parish, and also at Easter time. This time he wanted to be there in person. What is so surprising is that he, a Muslim, the son of an “imàm”, took up the initiative for this encounter with everybody. We are living a time where the doors of hope are opening”. ALBANIA. “ In Albania the spurts of lay religious tolerance, which we often see in the daily newspapers, make us smile. I am talking about a Nation with a large Muslim majority that has just freed itself of a unique as well as violent experience of State atheism. Here, for the past five hundred years of more or less problematic cohabitation between Islam and Christianity, be it Orthodox or Catholic, nobody ever dreamt, nor would they dream today, about the pretense that the Christian minority could or would censor themselves of some of the aspects of their festivities in the name of living together in peace. In Scutari, an old Eastern saying advises the cultivation of social harmony avoiding the need for preventive self-sterilization. When the Feast of the Great Bajram comes, every Christian with a minimum of good manners wears their best suit and with their wife and children goes to visit their Muslim friends and colleagues. At Christmas and Easter time, no Muslim, having Christian acquaintances, would think of not stopping by for a cup of coffee in their homes. During the Small Bajram, Christian friends and colleagues return the courtesy honoring the Muslim acquaintances with some sign of sharing in their feast day. The representatives of the various religious realities and the main officers of the Nation consider the courtesy of a visit during the main religious festivities of the different communities a precise duty. The principle that guides this very civil attitude is very simple and is valid for believers and non-believers. Even if belonging to different cultural and religious identities they all rejoice because the other is living a festivity, despite the fact that the philosophical and theological horizons are distant from each other. In the cyclic reoccurrence the feast day invites and educates towards an exquisite and noble human encounter. This is so much more than plain, mutual tolerance,but is, rather, participation. Monday, December 25, is Christmas for Catholics. The President of the Republic of Albania, an Orthodox Christian, found twenty minutes of time to go visit the Bishop at his home. The mufti does the same The Western attempt to go beyond a model until today substantially monochromatic, by proposing another more bland and unpalatable one with neutral tones, seen from here, seems like a clumsy and awkward path followed by an adolescent Europe, still incapable of making space for others. Perhaps even the Magi, certainly not Christians, with their visit to the family in Bethlehem, for an exchange of gifts, may still be a source of inspiration yet today”.