Cardinal Ruini: Fr Santoro's martyrdom shows the need for recognition of religious freedom
The murdered priest wanted "to make Christ present" in Turkey. The problem of reciprocity. Conditions that would need to be met for Islam to be taught in Italian public schools.
Rome (AsiaNews) Only the full, reciprocal recognition of the right to religious freedom, together with the respect for faiths and their symbols, can prevent the creation of tensions like those that followed the publication of caricatures on Mohammad, the climate of which set the stage for the murder of Fr Andrea Santoro, who went on mission to Turkey to "make Christ present in that land." In his speech for the opening of a session of the Permanent Episcopal Council in Italy, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, President of the Italian Bishops' Conference, recalled at length the Roman priest killed on February 5.
In the Cardinal's words, Fr Andrea "was convinced that a presence of prayer and a witness of life would be an effective sign of Jesus Christ and leaven of love and reconciliation. He was also aware of arousing hostility and of the risks he was running, but was sustained by great Christian courage, that typical courage of which, over centuries, many martyrs have given proof and which is rooted in the union with Christ, from whom not even death can separate us (cf Rom 8:31-38). This sacrifice is crowned by the words of his elderly mother. 'Fr Andrea's mother forgives with all her heart the person who armed himself to kill her son and feels great pity for him, as he is also a child of the one God that is Love.'"
Recalling then that Fr Santoro's death "took place, whatever the concrete motivations may be, in the context of the wave of violence that took its cue from the caricatures offensive to Islam published by a Danish newspaper at the end of September, which caused in numerous countries many victims and much destruction and also called into play relations between Italy and Libya," Cardinal Ruini repeated what Benedict XVI said on February 20 to the Moroccan Ambassador: "The Catholic Church remains convinced that, to foster peace and understanding among peoples and men, it is necessary and urgent that religions and their symbols be respected and that believers not be subjected to provocations that injure their religious behaviour and sentiments. Nevertheless, intolerance and violence can never be justified as a response to insults, as they are not responses compatible with the sacred principles of religion. For this reason, the actions of those who deliberately take advantage of offended religious sentiment to foment violent acts can only be condemned, all the more insofar as this happens for reasons foreign to religion. For believers, as for all people of good will, the only way that can lead to peace and brotherhood is that of the respect for the religious convictions and practices of others, so that, in a reciprocal manner in all societies, the exercise of freely-chosen religion is assured for each person."
Cardinal Ruini also dealt with the question of relations between Christians and Muslims, both in relation to various international situations and to a debate that arose in Italy on the possibility of Islam being taught in schools.
From the international perspective, the president of the Italian Bishops' Conference spoke of Nigeria, "for the tendency to impose Islamic law in various states of that densely-populated nation, but often for reasons that have nothing to do with religion. Violence," he added, "is also frequent in the Philippines, not to mention the difficulties of Christians in various Muslim-majority countries, or countries with political systems opposed to religions: therefore, there are serious and urgent reasons for seeking to build, or to restore, forms of civil coexistence and collaboration, in reciprocal respect and sincere recognition for religious freedom. Western countries themselves are called upon to lend the greatest and most concrete attention to these problems, in which fundamental rights are at stake."
As for the discussion on the teaching of Islam in Italian public schools, the Cardinal maintains that "firstly, the right to religious freedom applies to everyone and the teaching of Islam does not, in principle, appear to be impossible. Several fundamental conditions must be in place, however, which apply to any teaching in Italian public schools: in particular, that there not be any contrast in what is taught to our Constitution, for example with regard to civil rights, beginning with religious freedom, equality between man and woman, and marriage." "It would also be necessary to ensure that the teaching of Islamic religion does not in fact give rise to socially dangerous indoctrination."
"The comparison with the teaching of the Catholic religion does not, in any case, hold," the Cardinal concluded, given that, by the revised Concordat agreement between Italy and the Holy See, among the reasons for it is the fact "that the principles of Catholicism are part of the historical heritage of the Italian people."
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