Citizens and men of faith

A European Christian-Muslim Conference has opened at Malines (Brussels). From 20 to 23 October it is bringing together some fifty exponents of both faiths: representatives of the European Christian Churches (Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants) and members of the Islamic communities of various countries (Austria, Luxembourg, Romania, France, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Norway and Belgium). The Conference – with the title “Being a citizen of Europe and a person of faith: Christians and Muslims as active partners in European societies” – is promoted by the Committee for Relations with Muslims in Europe, an arm of the Conference of the European Churches (CEC/KEK) and the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE). “Our conference – said Jean Arnold de Clermont, President of the CEC, in his opening address – is situated at the heart of a project: that of exchanging our spiritual riches to be able better to offer them to a world that is trying to be better. In this sense, our meeting is strong in hope”. On the other hand, “the Europe that is dialoguing with Turkey, the Europe that is in relation with the countries of the Mediterranean, from which it received as an inheritance the essence of its culture, this Europe cannot fail to engage in dialogue with Islam, just as Islamic countries cannot fail to enter into dialogue with the Europe of human rights and the autonomy of politics and of religion”. Reportage by Maria Chiara Biagioni, SIR Europa’s correspondent in Brussels-Malines.A journey of hope. “As a signatory among 138 Muslim wise men” of the letter “A Common Word between us and you”, sent to the authorities of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christianity last year, “I wish to testify to the hope that through this initiative, as through this same Christian-Islamic Conference, Christians and Muslims shall be able to renew their understanding of each other and recognize in themselves and in their partners in dialogue the presence of Mercy that guides our spiritual service and makes us excellent models of citizenship in Europe and in the rest of the world”, said the imam Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, Vice-President of COREIS (Islamic Religious Community). Addressing the Conference in Brussels, he informed the delegates of the various initiatives that have been promoted following the letter of the 138 Muslim wise men. “A delegation of the signatories of this document – he said – was sent three months ago to an historic encounter at the University of Yale with prestigious Christian theologians and American Protestant pastors. A few weeks ago at Cambridge we met the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury and are preparing in a few days time to attend the first Catholic-Muslim Forum in the Vatican, which will conclude with an audience with Pope Benedict XVI”. These – said the Imam – are examples of “good practice” in Islamic-Christian dialogue which “apparently involve only theologians, jurists, religious leaders, spiritual gurus, university teachers and intellectuals, but which can and must produce repercussions on believers and on men and women sensitive to the true nature of religion and dialogue between the civilizations”. In defence of freedom of conscience. Defence of religious freedom and freedom of conscience in the world and the struggle against social exclusion: these are just some of the spheres of common action in which Muslims and Christians can and must collaborate together, insisted Cardinal Jean Pierre Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux and Vice-President of the CCEE. “It is in the nature of man – he said – to seek for the truth, and open himself to transcendence. This search and this opening must be free. And this implies the freedom to believe, to express one’s own faith, to celebrate it, teach it and express it in public”. “This religious freedom – added the cardinal – implies respect for freedom of conscience: the right, that is, freely to embrace a religion or to abandon it”. The cardinal then spoke of “reciprocity”. “I don’t know if the term is adequate. But I know very well what is intended by it, what’s at stake: namely, the credibility of what we say. Because we cannot claim full religious freedom here and restrict it elsewhere”. “I know – he added – that things are very complex at the political and cultural level, and that Islam must not be confused with the practices of States”. “But we have a need to hear ourselves saying to each other that collaboration really does exist between Muslims and Christians in Europe to promote at the world level those human values that seem to us fundamental”. Struggle against social exclusion. In his address, Cardinal Ricard touched on other fields of collaboration, including the struggle against social exclusion, speaking in particular of the situation in which ever larger numbers of immigrants are having to live in European cities: “ghetto towns or quarters, failure at school, unemployment, the feeling of having no role or future in society, anger and violence towards a society that does not seem fair”. “There is – said the archbishop – a whole programme of work we must engage in together to prevent the explosions of violence that may be produced in such situations and to wrest these people from exclusion”. It’s a task – said the archbishop – that can also be devolved to the local level as “work of social pacification” that the Christian and Muslim communities can perform together in the so-called ‘difficult’ quarters”.