” “Dialogue between religions involves “the ability to listen and argue, to compare different theological and ethical positions, without turning the scientific arguments, for instance historical quotations or the conclusions of rational arguments, into an insult to a religion”. This was stated, in a note published today, by Stefano Fontana, director of Card. Van Thuan International Observatory on the Social Doctrine of the Church, as he expressed his “sympathy with the Pontiff following the reactions to the speech he held in Regensburg on September 12th”. According to Fontana, dialogue between religions involves “mutual openness”, “a climate of mutual trust” and above all an “honest exchange of opinions about the truth” as well as “respect for the scientific method, for rational research” and for “professed faith”: all this “cannot but apply to the Catholic religion and its visible Head, the Pope”. In these days highlights Fontana “the silence of the heads of State and the intellectuals of the democratic countries that find in Catholicity and Christianity one of the foundations of their civilisations has been astonishing”. The West “has not found the courage, with the exception of a few occasional cases, to defend the freedom of expression that is not denied to anyone any more”.
