Mgr Lajolo: Pope against religious violence and exclusion of God in the west
The Vatican's former minister for foreign affairs clarified the pope's intentions in Regensburg. He appealed for peace-building and the promotion of human rights. And he levelled criticism against the international community for a lack of political will to resolve under development and conflicts.
New York (AsiaNews) The address of Benedict XVI has reached the United Nations. During a speech delivered yesterday evening at the UN General Assembly, Mgr Giovanni Lajolo specified that the pope condemned "religious motivations for violence", but also attempts by politicians to "exclude God" from a society "relegating religion to the ambit of subcultures".
The lecture delivered by the pope at the German university, continued the Vatican's former minister for foreign affairs, was intended to be a "boost and an encouragement for positive and even self-critical dialogue, both between religions and between modern reason and the faith of Christians". Beyond the misinterpretations that came about, the pope's "real intention" was to explain that "'not religion and violence, but religion and reason go together', in the context of a critical vision of a society which seeks to exclude God from public life".
Mgr Lajolo said: "If, on the one hand, religious motivation for violence, whatever its source, must be clearly and radically rejected, on the other, it must be emphasized that in political life one cannot disregard the contribution of the religious vision of the world and of humanity." For Mgr Lajolo, there is practically a cause-effect relationship between the two phenomena: "If reason to turn a deaf ear to the divine and relegate religion to the ambit of subcultures, it would automatically provoke violent reactions: and violent reactions are always a falsification of true religion". While the whole world could talk only about friction in the Muslim world after the Regensburg address, nothing was said about the fact that "the Holy Father, in defending the openness of political and cultural activity to the Transcendent, did not wish to do anything other than make a decisive contribution to the dialogue between cultures, by helping to open western thought to the riches of the patrimony of all religions."
Peace and under development.
The speech of Mgr Lajolo also focused on other themes like peace, under development and the promotion of human rights. He said "the Holy See continues to be an advocate of the United Nations and favours its ongoing reform" to make its organisms more effective. "Too often, international bodies act, if at all, only after war is under way or when innocent populations have long been under assault." "Suitable means" to "intervene in a timely manner" are needed "when the rights of whole groups of people are violated or when they go unprotected by their own governments". Here, Mgr Lajolo accused the international community of delaying in responding to the crisis that erupted between Israel and Hezbollah: "Security Council's Resolution 1701 of 11th August 2006 could have been adopted with the same wording one month previously."
Mgr Lajolo said there was a real lack of "political will of the international community". The same could be said for the (poor) commitment of governments to counter under development. "Implementation has been lacking" in many projects aiming to alleviate poverty, misery, epidemics and the scourge of exile for refugees, and to establish basic equity on the global market. The Vatican prelate said: "These failures to correct fundamental inequalities in the world economic system are fast becoming lost opportunities to advance a moral alternative to war."
Terrorism and the ideology of power
Tackling the state of affairs in the world, Mgr Lajolo condemned the "new barbarism" of terrorism a modern version of the Tower of Babel, of the pride of man that refuses "acknowledgment of one's neighbour and the recognition of his or her needs". This goes alongside an ideology of power and force, embraced by many states equipped with or about to be equipped with nuclear weapons. And while terrorism "rejects the best achievements of our civilization eight countries possess approximately 27,000 nuclear warheads, enough to destroy our planet many times over."
Protecting human rights
Consistent mention was made throughout the speech of protection of human rights as "an essential pillar in the edifice of world peace". The Holy See, said Mgr Lajolo, regards the promotion of human rights as one of the United Nations' primary forms of service to the world. The prelate, now President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, focused on efforts by China, Myanmar, Muslim and North European countries to dilute the universal value of human rights, stressing instead the relative value, linked to the history or culture of each nation. He said: "The diversity among cultures allows for differences in emphasis and implementation of human rights, but the human nature which is their foundation and is common to the whole of human society, permits no basic human right to be eclipsed." As for pretexts of "non interference", he said: "Every Government must clearly understand: violation of the fundamental rights of the person cannot be removed from the attention of the international community under the pretext of the inviolability of a State's internal affairs."
Mgr Lajolo mentioned three fundamental human rights: the right to life, from the very beginning to its natural end; the right to religious freedom; the right to freedom of thought and expression. Alas, he said, these three values in particular are not adequately protected in every nation. "In not a few, they are openly denied, even among States sitting on the Human Rights Council", the new organism launched by the United Nations.
Religions, dialogue, tolerance
In his address, Mgr Lajolo upheld the important place occupied by religion in society. "It is a vital force for good, for harmony and for peace among peoples" although "in some cases religion continues to be cynically exploited for political ends." The Vatican representative recalled the numerous occasions when John Paul II and Benedict XVI gathered around them the commitment to peace of many religious representatives. Using words very similar to those used by the pope in his meeting with ambassadors of Muslim countries, he said that "a sincere dialogue necessarily entails self-critical analysis of the relationship of our traditions to those social, political and economic structures prone to become agents of violence and injustice."
After recalling Benedict's criticism of religious violence and secularism that excludes religion, Mgr Lajolo added: "It falls to civil society as well as to States - to promote religious freedom and a sane, social tolerance that will disarm extremists even before they can begin to corrupt others with their hatred of life and liberty."
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