Missionary commitment and multicultural challenge in South Asia
Dhaka (AsiaNews) - About 70 Xaverian nuns and priests from Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, PIME, have attended a seminar on "Multi and Inter-cultural approach , Epistemological and semantic aspects " from 5 to 8 October.
Father Francis Rapacioli, PIME regional superior, told AsiaNews that the seminar addressed the problem of how the missionary understands and is understood by the people among whom he or she carries out his or her mission. This problem was addressed in a simple and clear manner by Agostino Portera (pictured), Professor of Intercultural Education at the University of Verona (Italy).
Portera spoke of violence between religious faiths, as manifested against Christians in countries like Muslim majority Pakistan or Hindu dominated India.
To communicate between different cultures, says Portera, "we need to address the growing conflict and violence in India and Pakistan, or any where else. Most people in conflict claim their religion or values are the best, but this is not the way forward, we must begin a dialogue with those who are in conflict, dialogue alone is the way. "
"We must understand the people, the contrast between Christian or Hindu or other faiths is not a problem, but the lack of dialogue is", "Dialogue can stop the conflict."
In Pakistan the blasphemy law is rooted, as denounced by Mgr. John Joseph, bishop of Faisalabad, between 1984 to 1998, who committed suicide in protest against the cruelty of Muslims toward Christians in Pakistan. In India there is a growing Hindu violence against Christians.
Portera observes that "intercultural education is the best and most appropriate to address such inevitable questions. This revolutionary approach bypasses our disorientation. ... And the current social changes." "Our different situations and intercultural education, as developed in Europe, allows us to reconsider the pedagogy, combining the best of tradition with the needs and demands of the challenges to come."
He also explained this in the use of general concepts, "there are still many barriers to overcome. The term 'tolerance' used to date in connection with multicultural and intercultural education sometimes conveys a hierarchical idea: a person who is superior and must accept the lesser. "Instead "the relationship must occur at the same level. In many countries, and in official documents, terms like 'race' or 'primitive culture' are still uncritically used, although the word 'race' has no scientific basis and has been banished from the language of the European Parliament. "Such words show the persistence of a "physical or psychological violence" and should be eliminated.
According to Porter, it is necessary to educate people on how to address such situations of conflict and this seminar can be a start, but we must continue a process of education, which must start from the school to educate the whole society.
Father Rapacioli concluded noting that missionaries are working for peace and that their work in Bangladesh takes place in much better conditions than in Pakistan and India, because there is a permanent dialogue with Islamic leaders.
.png)
07/02/2019 17:28
23/06/2010
