Pope Francis addresses
Mediterranean Bishops in Bari: Full Text
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| Pope Francis during his address to Bishops in Bari (AFP) |
Pope Francis on Sunday traveled to the southern Italian city
of Bari on the final day of a meeting entitled "Mediterranean frontier of
peace". During his address to Bishops from 19 Mediterranean countries, the
Pope described war as a "madness to which one can never resign
oneself." Don't raise walls, he said, and don't accept that one can die at
sea without help.
Below find Pope Francis' address to the Bishop of the
Mediterranean in Bari
Dear Brothers,
I am pleased that we can meet you and I am grateful that
each of you has accepted the invitation of the Italian Episcopal Conference to
take part in this meeting, which assembles the Churches of the
Mediterranean. When Cardinal Bassetti presented the idea to me, I readily
accepted it, seeing it as an opportunity to begin a process of listening and
discussion aimed at helping to build peace in this crucial part of the
world. For that reason, I wanted to be present and testify to the
importance of the new model of fraternity and collegiality that you
represent.
I find it significant that this meeting takes place in Bari,
since this city is so important for its links with the Middle East and Africa;
it is an eloquent sign of the deeply rooted relationships between different
peoples and traditions. The Diocese of Bari has always fostered
ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, working tirelessly to create bonds of
mutual esteem and fraternity. I purposely chose Bari, a year and a half
ago, to meet leaders of Christian communities in the Middle East for an
important moment of discussion and fellowship meant to help our sister Churches
to journey together and feel closer to one another.
You have come together in this particular context to reflect
on the vocation and future of the Mediterranean, on the transmission of the
faith and the promotion of peace. The Mare nostrum is
the physical and spiritual locus where our civilization took shape as a result
of the encounter of diverse peoples. By its very configuration, this sea
forces surrounding peoples and cultures to constant interact, to recall what
they have in common, and to realize that only by living in concord can they
enjoy the opportunities this region offers, thanks to its resources, its
natural beauty and its varied human traditions.
In our own day, the importance of this area has not
decreased in the wake of the process of globalization; on the contrary,
globalization has highlighted the role of the Mediterranean as a crossroads of
interests and important social, political, religious and economic
currents. The Mediterranean remains a strategic region whose equilibrium
has an impact on the other parts of the world.
It could be said that the size of the Mediterranean is
inversely proportional to its importance, to see it more as a lake than an
ocean, as Giorgio La Pira once said. Defining it as “the great Sea of
Galilee”, he drew an analogy between Jesus’ time and our own, between his
milieu and that of the peoples of our time. Just as Jesus lived and
worked in a context of differing cultures and beliefs, so we find ourselves in
a multifaceted environment scarred by divisions and forms of inequality that
lead to instability. Amid deep fault lines and economic, religious,
confessional and political conflicts, we are called to offer our witness to
unity and peace. We do so prompted by our faith and membership in the
Church, seeking to understand the contribution that we, as disciples of the
Lord, can make to all the men and women of the Mediterranean region.
The transmission of the faith is necessarily enriched by the
heritage of the Mediterranean region. That heritage has been fostered,
preserved and kept alive by Christian communities through catechesis and the
celebration of the sacraments, the formation of consciences, and individual and
communal hearing of the Lord’s word. Specifically, thanks to popular
piety, the Christian experience has taken on a form both meaningful and
enduring: popular devotion is for the most part the expression of
straightforward and authentic faith.
In this region, one deposit of remarkable potential is its
art, which combines the content of the faith with cultural treasures and
beautiful artworks. This heritage continues to attract millions of
visitors from every part of the world and must be carefully preserved as a
precious legacy received “on loan”, to be handed on to future
generations.
In the light of all this, the preaching of the Gospel cannot
be detached from commitment to the common good; it impels us to act tirelessly
as peacemakers. The Mediterranean region is currently threatened by
outbreaks of instability and conflict, both in the Middle East and different
countries of North Africa, as well as between various ethnic, religious or
confessional groups. Nor can we overlook the still unresolved conflict between
Israelis and Palestinians, with the danger of inequitable solutions and, hence,
a prelude to new crises.
War, by allocating resources to the acquisition of weapons
and military power, diverts those resources from vital social needs, such as
the support of families, health care and education. As Saint John XXIII
teaches, it is contrary to reason (cf. Pacem in Terris, 114;
127). In other words, it is genuine madness; it is madness to destroy
houses, bridges, factories and hospitals, to kill people and annihilate
resources, instead of building human and economic relationships. It is a
kind of folly to which we cannot resign ourselves: war can never be considered
normal, or accepted as an inevitable means of settling differences and
conflicts of interest.
The ultimate goal of every human society is peace; indeed,
we can affirm once more that “in spite of everything, there is no real
alternative to peacemaking” (Meeting with Heads of Churches and Christian
Communities in the Middle East, Bari, 7 July 2018). There is no
reasonable alternative to peace, because every attempt at exploitation or
supremacy demeans both its author and its target. It shows a myopic grasp
of reality, since it can offer no future to either of the two. War is
thus the failure of every plan, human and divine. One need only visit a
countryside or city that has been a theatre of war to realize how, as a result
of hatred, a garden turns into a desolate and inhospitable landscape, how the
earthly paradise turns into hell.
Peace, which the Church and every civic institution must
always consider their first priority, has justice as its indispensable
condition. Justice is trampled underfoot when the needs of individuals
are ignored and where partisan economic interests prevail over the rights of
individuals and communities. Moreover, justice is blocked by a throwaway
culture that treats persons as if they were things, generating and promoting
inequality. So much so that on the shores of this very sea there are some
societies of immense wealth and others in which many people struggle simply to
survive. A decisive contribution to combating this culture is made by the
countless charitable and educational works carried out by Christian
communities. Whenever dioceses, parishes, associations, volunteer organizations
or individuals strive to support those abandoned or in need, the Gospel becomes
all the more powerful and attractive.
In the pursuit of the common good – another name for peace –
we should employ the criterion pointed out by La Pira: to let ourselves be
guided by the “expectations of the poor” (“Le attese della povera gente”,
in Cronache sociali 1/1950). This principle, which can
never be set aside for calculation or convenience, if taken seriously, enables
a radical anthropological shift that makes everyone more human.
What use is a society of constant technological progress, if
it becomes increasingly indifferent to its members in need? In preaching
the Gospel, we hand on a way of thinking that respects each person by our
unremitting effort to make the Church a sign of special care for the vulnerable
and the poor. For “the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable”
(1 Cor 12:22) and “if one member suffers, all suffer together” (1
Cor 12:26).
In the Mediterranean region, these include all who are
fleeing war or who have left their homelands in search of a humanly dignified
life. The number of these brothers and sisters – forced to abandon their
loved ones and their lands, and to face conditions of extreme insecurity – has
risen as a result of spreading conflicts and increasingly dramatic
environmental and climatic conditions. It is easy to anticipate that this
phenomenon, with its momentous developments, will have a profound effect on the
Mediterranean, for which states and religious communities must not be found
unprepared. While countries experiencing this flow of migrants and
countries to which they travel are affected by this, so too are the governments
and Churches of the migrants’ countries of origin, which, with the departure of
so many young people, witness the impoverishment of their own future.
We are
aware that, in different social contexts, there is a growing attitude of
indifference and even rejection that reflects the mentality, condemned in many
of the Gospel parables, of those who, caught up in their own wealth and
freedom, are blind to others who, by speaking out or by the very fact of their
poverty, are pleading for help. Fear is leading to a sense that we need
to defend ourselves against what is depicted in demagogic terms as an
invasion. The rhetoric of the clash of civilizations merely serves to
justify violence and to nurture hatred. The failure or, in any case, the
weakness of politics, and factionalism are leading to forms of radicalism and
terrorism. The international community has been content with military
interventions, whereas it should have built institutions that can guarantee
equal opportunities and enable citizens to assume their responsibility for the
common good.
For our
part, brothers, let us speak out to demand that government leaders protect
minorities and religious freedom. The persecution experienced above all –
but not only – by Christian communities is a heart-rending fact that cannot
leave us indifferent.
In the
meantime, we can never resign ourselves to the fact that someone who seeks hope
by way of the sea can die without receiving help, or that someone from afar can
fall prey to sexual exploitation, be underpaid or recruited by gangs.
To be sure,
acceptance and a dignified integration are stages in a process that is not
easy. Yet it is unthinkable that we can address the problem by putting up
walls. In doing so, we cut ourselves off from the richness brought by
others, which always represents an opportunity for growth. When we reject
the desire for fellowship present deep within the human heart and is part of the
history of peoples, we stand in the way of the unification of the human family,
which despite many challenges, continues to advance.
The
Mediterranean has a unique vocation in this regard: it is the sea of
intermingling, “culturally always open to encounter, dialogue and mutual
inculturation” (Meeting with Heads of Churches and Christian Communities in
the Middle East, Bari, 7 July 2018). To be part of the Mediterranean
region is a source extraordinary potential: may we not allow a spirit of
nationalism to spread the opposite view, namely, that those states less
accessible and geographically more isolated should be privileged.
Dialogue alone enables us to come together, to overcome prejudices and
stereotypes, to tell our stories and to come to know ourselves better.
Young people, too, represent a special opportunity. When they are
provided the resources and possibilities they need to take charge of their own
future, they show that they are capable of generating a promising and
hope-filled future. This will only happen as the result of an acceptance
that is not superficial but heartfelt and benevolent, practised by everyone at
all levels, both the everyday level of interpersonal relationships and the
political and institutional levels, and fostered by those who shape culture and
bear greater responsibility in the area of public opinion.
For those
who believe in the Gospel, dialogue is advantageous not only from an
anthropological but also from a theological standpoint. Listening to our
brothers and sisters is not only an act of charity but also a way of listening
to the Spirit of God who surely works in others and whose voice transcends the
limits in which we are often tempted to constrain the truth. Let us come
to know the value of hospitality: “for thereby some have entertained angels
unawares” (Heb 13:1).
We need to
develop a theology of acceptance and of dialogue leading to a renewed
understanding and proclamation of the teaching of Scripture. This can
only happen if we make every effort to take the first step and not exclude the
seeds of truth also possessed by others. In this way, the discussion of
our various religious convictions can concern not only the truths we believe,
but also specific themes that can become defining points of our teaching as a
whole.
All too
often, history has known conflicts and struggles based on the distorted notion
that we are defending God by opposing anyone who does not share our set of
beliefs. Indeed, extremism and fundamentalism deny the dignity of the
human person and his or her religious freedom, and thus lead to moral decline
and the spread of an antagonistic view of human relationships. This too
shows us the urgent need of a more vital encounter between different religious
confessions, one motivated by sincere respect and a desire for peace.
This
encounter is spurred by the awareness, set forth in the Document on
Human Fraternity signed at Abu Dhabi, that “the authentic teachings of
religions invite us to remain rooted in the values of peace; to defend the
values of mutual understanding, human fraternity and harmonious
coexistence”. Religious groups and different communities can cooperate
more actively in helping the poor and welcoming immigrants, in such a way that
our relationships are motivated by common goals and accompanied by active
commitment. Those who together dirty their hands in building peace and
fraternal acceptance will no longer be able to fight over matters of faith, but
will pursue the paths of respectful discussion, mutual solidarity, and the
quest for unity.
Dear
brothers, these are the hopes I wanted to share with you at the conclusion of
our fruitful and consoling encounter in these days. I entrust you to the
intercession of the Apostle Paul who was the first to cross the Mediterranean,
facing dangers and hardships of every kind, in order to bring the Gospel of
Christ to everyone. May his example show you the paths to pursue in the
joyful and liberating task of handing on the faith in our own time.
I leave you
with the words of the Prophet Isaiah, in the hope that they will provide you
and your respective communities with hope and strength. Witnessing the
destruction of Jerusalem after the exile, the prophet did not fail to look
forward to a future of peace and prosperity: “They shall build up the ancient
ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the
ruined cities, the devastations of many generations” (Is 61:4).
This is the work the Lord entrusts to you on behalf of this beloved
Mediterranean region: to restore relationships that have been broken, to
rebuild cities destroyed by violence, to make a garden flourish in what is now
a desert, to instil hope in the hopeless, and to encourage those caught up in
themselves not to fear their brothers or sisters. May the Lord accompany
your steps and bless your work of reconciliation and peace.
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