“An effect of the phenomenon of migration we are witnessing today is rejection, resistance, non-acceptance of those who do not belong to a community. This feeling takes different forms. Sometimes it is mainly expressed through xenophobia, other times it generates populism. In either case it underlies the difficulty to address and accept diversity”, Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development thus explained to SIR the reflection meeting that opened in Rome on December 13 to discuss the growth of populism and xenophobia as a result of the migratory crisis. The event is promoted by the World Council of Churches in conjunction with the Vatican Dicastery, in cooperation with the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. The purpose of the meeting is to start preparing the ground for a world Conference on the same themes, scheduled to take place May 21-24 2018.
The meeting was attended by invited participants from Germany, Italy, Zimbabwe and the Ivory Coast, along with representatives of Churches members of the WCC –including the Greek Church, the Lutheran Evangelical, Methodist and Anglican Churches. Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson and Rev Olav Fykse Tveit, Secretary General of the Ecumenical Council of Churches (WCC) delivered the opening speeches. This close ecumenical cooperation is motivated by the determination to not remain silent or indifferent before the growing problem of xenophobia and populism and by the awareness of the crucial role that can be played by the Churches in “the promotion of a healthier and fairer human society.” SIR asked Cardinal Turkson how the idea to work in unison, and join forces of the Churches, took shape.
Your Eminence, why xenophobia and populism? What are the concerns? More than a concern we are motivated by the challenge raised by people who embark in a journey to find a new place to live. These people are forced to abandon their homelands. Taking such a decision is never easy. Nonetheless, along their journey they are often faced with a wall, sometimes with rejection,
In some cases with hatred.
Xenophobia, understood as the fear of people from other countries, also takes the shape of racial hatred, ascribed to diversity of races, in some cases to ethnicity or belonging to a given tribe. This form of rejection has recently escalated. Sometimes fear is expressed also against religion. The UN has released several statements against Islamophobia, Christianophobia. Mounting phobias not only for the colour of the skin, not only of people from other countries, even a given faith, or religion, an entire way of living, can raise widespread fear. These phenomena testify to the difficulty of accepting others, especially those who are different. Often these attitudes are exploited by populist movements that use them for ideological purposes.
How can the Churches curb these ideological drifts? The Churches have the Biblical narrative that gives us a basic truth on human nature. In the Bible the creation of humanity is characterised by two things: first of all, man is created from Adam and Eve. Secondly, in the Scriptures the multiplication of mankind occurs through kinship. In the Bible, we are told that humankind multiplies only through brotherhood. So in the Bible we find two statements: we are generated by the same womb, so
We are all equal by nature, we all have equal dignity.
Since we are brothers we are different from one another, each of us having specific features. The Biblical narrative places us before two fundamental features of humanity: we are generated by the same womb but we are different since we are brothers.
The presentation of the conference explains that during the three-day meeting you will explore, ahead of the Summit in May, concrete initiatives jointly promoted by the Churches to address this growing fear in a proactive way. No other organism can propose a way to overcome this problem. The Christian answer is Jesus, the first-born of all brothers. Thus Jesus presents Himself in the Gospel and invites us to recognize one another as brothers and sisters. Paul, developing this concept, tells us that there is neither Greek nor Jew. But the Jew remains a Jew and the Greek remains a Greek. In Jesus, this identity does not constitute a barrier. In Jesus we are one people and one family. When brotherhood becomes a problem, when diversity becomes a problem, Christianity must say that it does not correspond to the truth.
What makes you believe that the Churches can make a difference in uprooting fear and building – as you affirm in the presentation – “a human, fairer, and healthier society”? We can contribute! The Church shares her challenges and her hopes with society. We offer the social doctrine of the Church, that formulates an orientation, maps out an itinerary that can help us live together as brothers and sisters. Sometimes we betray this solution, and this can be a problem. Let is suffice to see what happened in our recent past.
Apartheid was denounced by Christianity and even by Catholicism in South Africa.
It was the same with racism in the United States. But what about Europe? Christians must not betray their faith. They are called to guide humanity towards universal brotherhood. But in order to do so they must be faithful to the word of Jesus and be true evangelizers.
