(Daniele Rocchi, SIR’s correspondent in Lyons) "We, as the representatives of the monotheistic religions, feel responsible for speaking together". This is the beginning of the inter-religious declaration, one of the fruits of the Social Week of France, which was focussed on the subject: "Religions, a hope or a threat for our societies?" and ended in Lyons yesterday. The document, signed by Christians, Jews and Muslims, states: "The principle of separating the political and the religious is for us a premise and a condition for any serene religious and political experience. But this premise is not mere neutrality, it must be supported by a respectful attitude, by the wish to get to know and recognise the other, even if we do not share the same faith and the same beliefs". The task that is so urgent now, it goes on, is to "multiply dialogue in any place between believers as well as dialogue with our non-believing brothers". In this respect, "without boasting and without qualms", we invite you to draw from the declaration "the meaning that many of our contemporaries are looking for, when confronted by "multiple causes for restlessness" and by the reduction of man to an "economic consumer". (continued)
