A French Catholic bishop has spoken of the need for respect for the
rights of all believers to practice their faith, as France became the
first country in the world to forbid the wearing of burqa and niqab
veils in public.
Bishop Michel Santier, bishop of Créteil (pictured), and president of
the Council for Interreligious Relations and New Religious Tendencies,
said, “The French, including the Catholics among them, should not let
themselves be gripped by fear of a clash of civilisations.”
In a
statement he called for distinctions to be made between the majority of
peaceful Muslims and a minority of radicals.
“If we want Christian minorities in Muslim majority countries to
enjoy all their rights, we should in our country respect the rights of
all believers to practice their faith,” he said.
“A dialogue in truth
among believers will help us go beyond mutual mistrust. The path will
be long and hard.”
His comments have been countered by various commentators such as one
online who suggested that Christians in Muslim countries is far more
restricted.
For example Muslims in France can build mosques, observe
the five pillars of Islam and proselytise.
However Christians under
Islamic rule do not have the same freedom to build new churches or
repair old ones, nor can they openly propagate their faith, sometimes
their safety is in doubt.
The Doctrinal Commission of the Episcopal Conference of France (CEF)
at an annual session in February, addressed the theme of, Christian
Faith in God and interreligious dialogue: What is the theology
pertaining to dialogue? Muslim imam Azzedine Gaci, president of the
Rhône-Alpes Regional Council of Muslim Worship, was present and stressed
the importance of dialogue.
The bishops also discussed live issues such as what attitude to have
towards the Muslim feast-days - given the large number of pupils
professing the Muslim religion in Catholic schools – sometimes up to
80%.
They considered how to keep the dialogue going when relations with
the Muslim community sometimes end up in conflict, notably “in the
suburbs, with the growing influence of the Salafist branch of Islam.”
Some bishops had been asked by Catholics to “resist Islam,” while
others meet with requests for instruction, conferences, and meeting
places for Christians and Muslims in their diocese.
During the plenary assembly of French bishops in Lourdes, in November
2008, Bishop Santier acknowledged that the purpose of ecumenism is to
restore unity among Christians, while interreligious dialogue is meant
to “promote understanding and collaboration between communities of
different religions to enable them to live together and in peace.”
However, he suggested that many Christians still do not understand the
importance of this dialogue.
On a visit to the USA earlier this month Maria Voce, President of
Focolare (Catholic lay movement) spoke of dialogue and witnessing to
“unity in diversity.”
At the UN Church Centre she met leaders and
members of the main faiths to celebrate 50 years of the Focolare
Movement in the United States.
At that meeting the Vatican’s permanent observer at the UN,
Archbishop Chullikatt, underlined “dialogue between faiths, while
respecting differences.”
The Focolare has had a dialogue with people of many faiths in the USA
over the years including Muslims.
In 1997 Imam Warith Deen Mohammed
(who passed away in recent years) invited Focolare founder Chiara Lubich
to address 3,000 of his followers at New York’s Malcolm Shabazz Mosque
in Harlem.
The dialogue has grown and strengthened in the intervening
years.
In an interview in the year 2000 when Imam Mohammed was asked about
this dialogue’s positive influence in the US, a country still faced with
racial problems, he answered, “The real life of the public is really
religious life, no matter how far the person of the world is away from
religion. This is the country of people of faith. In my opinion, it is
only possible for us to really purge ourselves of the poison of racial
prejudices if we become spiritually healthy. This is the picture we
show of our relationship as people of different religions who recognize
one humanity.”