The
Pope, Faith
and Violence
September 2006
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The
Pope's
mid
September quotation of a 15th century Byzantine
emporer unleased
waves of protest and riots in the Muslim world. As
Muslim scholar Tariq
Ramadan pointed out on the Globe’s
editorial pages 21 September, certain groups and
governments manipulate
events for their own political purposes. The same is
of course true
with respect to the Christian world. The Pope and
the papacy are not
above working in the political world and indeed the
Vatican has a seat
at the United Nations. As Ramadan points out, it is
possible to link
the "events" surrounding the Pope's quotation
with the Vatican
political agenda surrounding Turkey and its
membership in Europe.
Ramadan calls for Muslim debate surrounding jihad and the
use of force; the
role of reason and faith; the "Christian" character
of Europe. He calls
for recognition of a pluralism and he notes "Neither
Europe nor the
West can survive if we continue to try to define
ourselves by excluding
..." He's right - but how far is he (are we?)
willing to go?
Behind
Ramadan's
article are big issues for all people of faith and
not just
Muslims. Few human beings and human institutions
stand fault free on
close scrutiny. There is a
question of the role and responsibility of a faith
tradition within a
questionable regime. The role of
the papacy with respect to Nazi Germany is a matter
of some discomfort
among thoughtful Roman Catholics. The use of armed
conflict keeps
returning as an issue for Christians in a variety of
ways. I know
people inspired by a Christian theology who felt
they had to join
guerilla fighters in Central America during the
1980s. These are common
issues which faith traditions might discuss
together.
I see
benefits in a secular society, but I think it would
be a mistake to
lose organised faith traditions. With their many
faults, the faith
traditions have somehow preserved ancient insights
which keep inspiring
in each generation new individuals and groups which
work with the
"ought to be" to bring compassion to human needs of
the moment.
So, if the Pope feels a need to reinforce the
importance of maintaining
his faith tradition in secular Europe, I can agree
with that so long as
we are talking about all the faith traditions
including protestant and
orthodox Christianity. If Ramadan wants to point out
that Islam has
been an important if hidden contributor in the
building of contemporary
Europe, that is a matter of fact. He appears to be a
present contibutor
and I hope he continues.
However,
people
of faith can too easily tangle in endless talk about
the
particularities of their faiths. More important are
the common faith
traditions of respect for the individual human
person and the
commitment to a way of compassion in meeting human
needs. Those of
us working with refugees discovered that the
particularities of our
faiths disappeared, that we could respect each
other and that we
could
develop common principles for the common work.
Walking the
ways of our various faiths together with mutual
respect seems to be a
simple and practical way of providing a place where
the questions in
Ramadan's issues get answered, at least for
practical purposes.
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