Participates in Congress on "Religions and Peace"
BEIJING, SEP 14 (ZENIT.org).- "Never before has war been so discredited, abhorred by Popes, who on occasions have been labelled out-and-out pacifists: there is no place for an aggressive just war, and scarcely any for justified defensive war," Cardinal Roger Etchegaray said, when he addressed a Congress in Beijing on "Religions and Peace," sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in collaboration with the Catholic University of Milan. Cardinal Etchegaray is president of the Vatican Committee of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.
The Basque-French Cardinal, who is in Beijing in a personal capacity, delineated the work carried out by the Church in the service of peace. After the great wars, humanity has turned to little wars, guerrillas, ethnic conflicts, and the cynical sale of arms to poor countries, the Cardinal pointed out.
Art of Peace
Cardinal Etchegaray affirmed that "the promotion of peace cannot remain as a piece of craftsmanship, or be reduced to basking in good sentiments and ideas: it is not enough to say hello to peace in order to say goodbye to war. There is a science of peace, there must be an art of peace."
The Cardinal, who until recently was president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, replied by referring to the Church's efforts for peace, mobilizing its members, especially youth and men and women of science. Likewise, he highlighted the intense activity of pacification and promotion of human rights that the Holy See has fostered in international conferences and institutions, making itself "voice of humanity's moral conscience."
Education in Peace Is a Mission of Church
"New names" are being given to peace, such as development, social justice, international solidarity, defense of the rights of man, ecology; and "new gestures of peace" are being invented to "break the fatal wave of passions inherited from history." However, the heart of the problem is education in peace, the "particular although not exclusive domain of the Church," in order to learn reconciliation and the overcoming of extremisms, racial and religious intolerance, and contempt and fear of others.
"With this legion of men and women, known simply as of 'good will,' the Church struggles in favor of peace," the Cardinal said. The Church has an irreplaceable task, because "the peace of Christ reveals the deep roots of peace, reminding of the need to struggle against evil." In fact, "it is difficult to talk about peace, if there are no signs of peace and reconciliation in one's life."
The Church "does not have an answer for everything," Cardinal Etchegaray concluded, but it wishes to remind all that real happiness is found "where people are honored in the fullness of their dignity."
During his stay in China, Cardinal Etchegaray, who was the first Cardinal to visit this Communist country (in 1980), will meet with representatives of the underground Catholic Church and leaders of the Catholic Patriotic Association, controlled by the regime, which participated in the Congress' organization. On Saturday or Sunday, at the end of the meeting, the Cardinal should meet with Patriotic Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan of Beijing, who has been bitterly criticized recently by Catholics faithful to Rome. Bishop Fu Tieshan headed the Chinese delegation at the Millennium Summit of religious leaders, held at the United Nation in New York.
Before travelling to Beijing, Cardinal Etchegaray said that "my only desire is simply to be able to testify to all a sincere and determined will to dialogue, without concealing any of the truth of the Church, just as Christ founded it."
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