[Appears also in Concilium 2001/5, December 2001]
A Declaration of the journal Concilium about the events in New York and Washington, D.C. in September of this year.
The four airplane hijackings, the destruction of the World Trade Center and the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 have provoked a world-wide sense of shock. This feeling is also shared by the members of Concilium, regardless of the degree they personally or their family members were affected by the disaster. We are shaken by the six thousand dead, many of whom died in agony. We mourn with the wounded, with those left behind and with all whose hope for a better future was destroyed. Now, however, after a few months, the time of horror has given way to a time of reflection. Recently it has often been said that after the attacks the world has become a different place. It is our task to see that this statement does not become an empty or a deceptive cliché.
For over 40 years the journal Concilium has conceived of itself as a theological enterprise that is international in scope and whose members are active in all parts of the world. Indeed, the two most recent numbers of the journal have been dedicated to the question of a global ethic and also to the ambivalent phenomenon of globalization. In view of the events mentioned above, as a global community of Catholic theologians we wish to draw attention to the following points of view:
1. Men and woman inspired by their Christian faith are concerned with the well-being and the salvation of the world and its peoples against all forms of destruction. They are concerned with the mindsets and the structures that are able to promote justice or injustice, that encourage either mutual regard or violent contempt for what is labeled as ‘other’ to one’s own group. They are involved in building up human relationships based on equality and with the goal of peace and reconciliation. Only when we work together on these and other communal and world-wide questions can there be hope for a better future.
2. The catastrophe of September 11th should not conceal from our view the silent tragedies and catastrophes that take place daily and unnoticed by almost all the world’s media in Africa, in Asia and in Latin America. The attacks on New York and Washington became a media event in which fiction and reality were dramatically molded together while at the same time tens of thousands each day face their death ignored by the world or soon forgotten. Only those who fight against this one-sided forgetfulness have earned the right that their outrage over this new form of evil – manifested in instrumentalizing one group, innocent plane passengers, to kill another group of innocent civilians – will be taken seriously.
3. The horror over the terror should be understood as a longing for peace and it must be converted into concrete activity for peace. Here one cannot overlook that the financial and technical prosperity and power of the West has been achieved at a high price. The poverty of many regions of the world is still unimaginable. The politically uncontrolled streams of money flowing worldwide often play a destabilizing role in many countries. In many post-colonial countries the repression or corruption of legitimate political opposition is accepted by the major international powers and agencies, such as the IMF, in their dealings with those countries. This should not be forgotten in the current situation. The world can only change when this double standard is recognized and then met by a sustained effort to overcome the global realities of inequality and social injustice.
4. As in comparable cases, so also here there has occurred in many countries after these horrible events a clear trend in interpretation to categorize entire groups, even peoples and cultures, into Good and Evil. To do this justifies a mechanism for blind revenge. Evil must still be labeled as evil, and the specific political circumstances that are considered to have contributed to the actual events have to be overcome. But the categorical separation of the world into Good and Evil is a dangerous temptation and completely unacceptable, no matter from which side this division is undertaken. In particular we have to stress that, like the other religions, Islam also condemns terrorism.
5. In a global perspective, religions have an indispensable role to play for the future of humanity. All of them put forward visions of peace and justice. They are capable, and also at the present moment determined to swim against the tide of increasing hate and violence. Together with all people of good will, they choose the path of justice and reconciliation before other options. Nevertheless, it is a tragic reality that the religions have also allowed themselves to be misused for selfish or dogmatic purposes, for dehumanizing ideologies or even for extermination. Yet in its genuine roots, the concept of monotheism, of the one true God, is not intended to bring about a separation between believers and those who are infidels or enemies, but to reveal a vision of peace. It is oriented toward the recognition of all women and men as members of God’s family. The task of theologians and religiously minded people is to unmask whatever violent or dehumanizing tendencies may exist in their own religious traditions. They also need to co-operate with other forces and movements struggling towards greater peace and justice. They can thus see to it that the modern hostages of humanity – those suffering from hunger and violence, from dispossession and exile, from civil war and oppression – can be gradually liberated from their imprisonment.
6. Many of us through our international, intercontinental and increasingly interreligious cooperation have made positive and liberating experiences. Therefore we appeal to all Christians with all the means at their disposal to forge bonds of solidarity, of peace and of reconciliation Those who live in wealthy countries have a special obligation to track down injustice around the world, cry out against it, and, bit by bit, overcome it. At a time when the first impulse of governments is to focus only on the security of their own political system, economy and citizens, Christians have to remind political leaders that the funds to pay for this extra security must not be diverted from the small amounts set aside to feed and to bring justice to world’s poor and oppressed. Rather than only campaigns with short-sighted vision, there must now arise a new truly global movement which will join the various continents and cultures to one another in the will for justice and in mutual respect. This type of approach offers the only real chance of overcoming present and future terrorism and fostering a lasting security.
On behalf of Concilium:
The Founders of Concilium
The Board of the Foundation
The Board of Directors
Concilium
English
