MESSAGE FOR THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE: THE GEOGRAPHY OF PERSECUTION

Mgr. Toso explained that “all in all, the Papal message is a call on believers and on men and women of good will to join in the fight for the protection of all people and communities, of their religious freedom, of their rights and duties, of religious pluralism, of positive secularism, and of peace”. The Pope condemns “all forms of fanaticism, fundamentalism and laicism, because they all somehow overlook the essence of religious freedom, which is the free and common search for transcendent truth”. Answering a journalist’s question on whether it would be appropriate to draw a parallel between the real persecution of Christians in the Middle East and laicism in Western countries, Mgr. Toso replied: “We are faced with phenomena which attack religious freedom at its roots, and when the roots of religious freedom are attacked, the dignity of the person is also attacked. Every attempt to undermine religious freedom, in a way or another, always leads to the denial and destruction of the individual and of his dignity. It is thus the sign of a process that, be it in the West or in the Middle East, in the North or in the South, goes to undermine the dignity of the person and the core of religious freedom”.
Even Tommaso Di Ruzzo, of the said Vatican Dicastery, offered the same explanation, adding that “it is understandable that one may be scandalised at the parallel between the effects of secularised laicism on religious freedom and the effects of religious fundamentalism, which in some regions of the world is putting at risk the very lives of believers. But when we ask ourselves more generally what is the value at stake in both situations, and we say that the value at stake is the dignity of the person and his capacity to reach God, then we understand that it is precisely this value that is being undermined, although with different effects and intensity”.

© SIR - 16 dicembre 2010

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