Thanks to Lella's blog
for pointing out this article.
The strength of the Pope's words
lies in their truth and witness:
How Benedict XVI tackles issues
by Lucio Brunelli
Translated from
January 12, 2009
In both the Angelus on January 10 and his address yesterday to the Vatican diplomatic corps, the Pope called attention to the problem of clandestine immigrants and that of Christian minorities in the Muslim world.
They are diverse realities but Benedict XVI has chosen to bring them together in his messages. They are both situations of suffering, in which the same value is at stake: the acceptance of 'diversity'.
His words, especially those said at the Sunday Angelus, have found great and well-merited resonance in the mass media.
"We must start from the heart of the problem. We must start from the significance of the person," he said Sunday, commenting on the tragic events involving immigrant aliens in Rosarno [a town in southern Italy].
Even as concern for the Islamist 'invasion' of Europe is growing in many Catholic circles, Benedict XVI recalled some simple truths which should be familiar to anyone with a Christian sensibility.
The immigrant, though different from us in language, culture and origin, is a human being, who must be respected. Behind his face is a soul, a history, and "God loves him as he loves me". Words which are not rhetorical nor to be considered simply as an expression of obtuse Catholic do-goodism.
Analogously, speaking to the 178 ambassadors accredited to the Vatican, the Pope mentioned the tragedy of millions of persons constrained by war and by the scourges of poverty and hunger, to abandon the lands of their birth and ancestry.
"In the face of such an exodus," he said, "I call on civilian authorities to act with justice, solidarity, and foresight".
On both occasions, the Pope followed up these statements with "similar considerations" on the fate of Christians in some Muslim countries. Denouncing on Sunday the violences in Egypt and Malaysia and yesterday, the forced emigration of many Christians from the Middle East - also the result of a lack of religious freedom - the Pope nonetheless did not use the term 'reciprocity'.
And precisely, we think, because he does not wish to give the impression of any political give-and-take such as "We Catholics will defend the rights of Muslim immigrants in the West but only if you, in turn, grant our minorities equal treatment".
That is not the logic of Christianity, which has a logic of absolute gratuitousness. Benedict XVI framed the problem in terms of the respect that is owed to every person as a person - regardless of religious opinions and convictions, much less of skin color.
He said what he did not because he expects to gain some political profit in the dialog with Islam. But only because it is what he believes and feels.
And indeed, illegal immigrants are not subhuman beings who can be treated as the white masters treated black slaves in the cotton plantations of 19th-century USA.
Not to pay the laborer his right wages is one of the sins that cry out in the face of the Lord. This was not taught by Marx but by the catechism of our childhood, that of Pius X, that we learned by heart.
The strength of the Pope's words is in their evidence of truth. Not uttered in screams but with the gentle strength of witness.
Is it ingenuous to hope that such witness and such truth could - even if slowly - lead the Muslim world to open up their laws, but above all, the mentality of the people themselves to better respect for Christians?
Or is it perhaps more realistic, even in political terms, to simply take on a hostile attitude that is full of recrimination?
This Pope does not gloss over problems and inherently demands respect. But he is following a course that is new, and different from facile ecumenical irenisms and the equally facile and inconclusive attitude of closedness and revenge.