Fonte: terrasanta.net

After the Pope's Speech
David-Maria A. Jaeger, ofm
Rome, 19 settembre 2006


Here are some thoughts after the Angelus of Sunday 17 September 2006 written by Fr. David-Maria A. Jaeger, a franciscan priest belonging to the Custody of the Holy Land.

Yes, there are many things about this or that expression of Islam that make us uncomfortable, just as there must be a lot things about this or that expression of Christianity that make Muslims uncomfortable. And the number of things to make them or us uncomfortable only grows in proportion as the profession of either religion gets mixed up with human societies and cultures that have nothing to do with the «essence» of that religion itself, but which have - especially, but not only - in the minds of outsiders become inextricably linked with the image either side has of the other.

Thus, for example, the contempt for the sacred, which Pope Benedict XVI, has deplored as rampant in the Christian «West», has become for many scandalised Muslims a characteristic of «Christianity» itself, thus hurting the possibility of fruitful dialogue. And certain manifestations of (sometimes extreme) violence, claimed by their authors as both justified and required by Islam, have so impressed themselves on the minds of «Christian Westerners» as to lead many, too many, to commit the evident injustice of ascribing such tendencies to some necessary corollary of believing in Islam and worshipping God according to its precepts.

It is the deplorable combination of these and similar reciprocal misconceptions that is responsible for so much of the peculiar explosiveness in some areas of the relationship between so many Muslims and so many Christians today.
And it is against this background, or rather within this con-text, that words spoken, or rather quoted, by the Holy Father in the course of an academic lecture in Regensburg (Bavaria, Germany) on 12 September this year were - to his own and our utter astonishment, - transformed into a flaming match thrown into this explosive mix.

As has been emphatically said - by the Holy Father himself, and on his behalf - nothing could have farther from his mind, nothing could have been more alien to his intentions.

At the time of writing, it is everyone's fervent hope that the Supreme Pontiff's timely and heartfelt initiatives to respond humbly and sincerely to the critics, and to heal the wounds, will indeed attain their objective, and that what at first seemed like a world-wide catastrophe in the making may thereby be averted.

But this is not enough.

An immense world-wide effort is needed - and perhaps nowhere more so than in the Holy Land and the Middle East as a whole - to fulfil the Second Vatican Council's vision (cf. Nostra Aetate, no. 3) of the relationship between the Church and Muslims, a relationship rooted in the considerable heritage of analogous beliefs and values, as well as, in any case, founded on shared humanity.

And above all, those very many of us who are, as it were, «Western» Christians must steadfastly resist the siren calls of those who work to enlist Christianity in their hypothetical clash of civilisations, to reduce the faith in the Crucified and Risen Christ to being simply the ultimate blessing of a divisive ideology, or no more than the symbolic representation of one contemporary «culture», thus fortifying it for any political, military, or economic competition it might be having with other «cultures» or clusters of nations. The most extreme example of that was given in recent years by a recently deceased, famous yet controversial European writer who proudly declared herself to be a staunchly «Christian atheist», thus improperly emptying the term «Christian» of meaning and subordinating it to a contingent earthly agenda or set of interests (however legitimate or even desirable the latter might be).

Yes, of course, we each have reason to be proud of our human identity, that of our respective human communities, national, cultural and so on, and to seek - even zealously - to defend and preserve it. But we must never again, after the unhappy experiences of long centuries, confuse that «identity» with the Christian faith that we profess. And, above all, we must never again suffer the name of «Christian» to be recruited to the service of any kind of earthly, merely human, contingent, agenda - even a perfectly justified one.

It has been the near-universal appreciation that the Catholic Church, and most specifically, the Supreme Pontiff, are now completely above, and removed from, any such temptation, that has rendered the contemporary Papacy such a universal point of reference, even for those far outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church. It is this that has endowed the Popes of our time with such unequalled ability to speak to everyone on earth, and to be heard respectfully by all. If there be any «clash», the Church as such is not a party to it. Her Supreme Pastor remains, in every circumstance, the «ambassador of God», calling on all for reconciliation, with justice and mercy, with forgiveness.

This is the profound reason for the deep anguish that the needless controversy over the Holy Father's speech has caused. Unjustly, gratuitously, now there were those who would deprive the human family of that common father, who would take away from his office, and therefore from the Church, that vital ability to be recognised by all as representing the ultimate values that - under God - unite and reconcile in the service of humanity.

Our Muslim friends and neighbours are not a menace, their beliefs are not a threat. If anything, they are often a source of edification. And if there are some among them who do hurt us, or plan to do so, then there have always been plenty of «us» who have done likewise in their regard (or even to each other). But hurt, conflict and violence are not what either they or we are ultimately about. And when we seem to deny this, they are pained, just as we would be. And since multitudes of them are nowadays on the «other side» of the global divide between the «haves» and the «have nots», they are often understandably even much more sensitive than «we» are to real or perceived insult or injury. The Holy Father showed at once that he fully understood this, and extended his hand in peace, although he had never meant the disrespect that they mistakenly thought they had been shown. Can we not, in our own circumstances, wherever we are, follow that example and do likewise?

It seems at times as if we, Christian believers, are now at a crossroads, such that we cannot afford to rely on quietly wondering in the future about the «road not taken». We can either weak-mindedly allow ourselves to be sucked into the vortex of conflict, to be mobilised by earthly interests (however noble and right, in earthly terms) to take sides in that conflict, exacerbating it thereby, or we can, with resolute humility, decline the invitation, stand our ground, and untiringly witness to that which we believe by keeping our hand of friendship steadily extended (no matter however long it may possibly just stay there in the air waiting to be grasped). I suggest we choose the latter course. I suggest this is «what Jesus would have done», and would have us do too.

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The Second Vatican Council's Statement

«The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting».

«Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom».

(quotation from Nostra Aetate, Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, no. 3

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