Don’t deny diversities

“Social dialogue and cooperation as indispensable ways of building a future of peace in the countries of the Mediterranean”: that’s the approach indicated by the international seminar on “social dialogue and Mediterranean: prospects and strategies of cooperation”, promoted in Rome in recent days by the Christian Workers’ Movement (CWM) and the People’s Europe Foundation. “Faced by the explosions of violence that have been so much in the news in recent months – it was said at the meeting – it is essential to spare no effort to foster dialogue between religions and cultures. It is a dialogue that must be pursued especially in the consciousness of our own identity and that cannot be divorced from the effort to accelerate democratic processes in the whole area”. FROM PALESTINE TO BOSNIA. “The affirmation of our own identity is an indispensable factor for true dialogue, because conflict can be resolved not by eliminating differences, but by focusing on what it is we have in common”, said Monsignor FOUAD TWAL, coadjutor of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. “The world today – he explained – is an advocate of cultural uniformity, induced in part by the uniform identity and relativism of Western secular thought, and on the other by the cultural standardization due to globalization. This is an obstacle to dialogue, because “it only generates opposite reactions: the veil is an example of this; it is worn by Islamic women as a sign of their identity and as a reaction against the cultural colonialism of the West”. According to Twal, “dialogue, before being theological, political or strategic, must be ‘human’; it must be based, that is, on the common desire for goodness and justice”, and the Church “must be like a bridge whose foundations are built on opposite shores”. The Church in Palestine is a “shining example of dialogue in practice”: “it is present with its faith among the people; it shares the life of the Arabs; it offers education that is open to all three religions, such as the many schools run by the Patriarchate which provide education to 22,000 students”. In the view of FRANJO TOPIC , professor at the University of Sarajevo and for years involved in the front line for the achievement of real peace between the various ethnic groups in Bosnia, “one of our tasks on earth is to dedicate ourselves to reconciliation, especially in cases in which, as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a brutal war has been waged”. “Very often – he noted – people emphasize that the war has destroyed properties such as homes, factories and schools, but seldom do they remember that the war has also destroyed virtues and values”. That’s why “we need to devote ourselves to the education of new men”. Topic also criticized the Dayton accords on the specific point of the creation of a new ruling class: “it is very difficult to imagine how those who conducted the war could guide the process of reconciliation”. But there is a signal of hope: the activity in Sarajevo of the “Napredak” cultural association of which he is President. It sees Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims working side by side to give a future of peace to their country. It is a “clear example of reconciliation in practice”. FROM DIALOGUE TO COOPERATION . “The Church hopes for a fruitful dialogue between cultures to better serve the common good of all mankind”, declared Cardinal RENATO RAFFAELE MARTINO , President of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, in his address to the meeting. “International cooperation in the integral development of all men and women – he added – is a key point in the social doctrine of the Church and a means at the disposal of international relations to ensure mutual understanding and solidarity”. It “can achieve beneficial effects for the whole of humanity”: in other words, “increased participation in planetary growth; a fairer distribution of resources that may permit all communities to have sufficient access to them, and hence the limitation of a distorted use of human goods; and a fair system of global concertation for development, able to overcome any position of arrogance and enslavement”. VITTORIO EMANUELE PARSI , professor of international policy at the Catholic University of Milan, stressed that “social dialogue in the Mediterranean cannot be decoupled from the political question”. “There are institutional differences between North and South of the Mediterranean – he said – so that if for historical reasons Europe has now become the home of democracy, this has not happened in the Arab countries. That’s why, as far as Turkey is concerned, “the central question is not whether or not it can enter into Europe, but how can we help it to win the challenge of democratisation, given that there are political minorities that believe in European values”. In Lebanon, too, the social dialogue between the various religious components of the country “cannot be decoupled from greater democracy. We hope in the first place for a President that may also represent Christians”, said CHIIBLI MALLAT , Maronite Christian at the University of Beirut.