Card. Parolin to UN: Faiths have a responsibility to condemn those who justify violence with religion
New York City (AsiaNews) - "People of faith have a grave responsibility to condemn those who seek to detach faith from reason and instrumentalize faith as a justification for violence", stated Card. Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, during the open debate on foreign terrorists, held Sept. 24 at the UN Security Council, in connection with the issue on the agenda "Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts."
In his speech, the cardinal pointed out that
terrorism is now a global phenomenon with "a strong
cultural component," which requires
the intervention of
solidarity of nations, but that
" any action against terrorism beyond the frontiers of the
country which is directly under attack, as defined by article 51 of
the Charter of the United Nation, should be sanctioned by the Security Council".
Today, the cardinal said, "terrorism
represents a fundamental threat to our common and shared humanity since it
dehumanizes both perpetrator and victim and seeks to destroy freedom and human
dignity rooted in the natural moral order, replacing it instead with the logic
of fear, power and destruction".
"Pope Saint John Paul II reminded us in the wake of the tragic events of
11 September 2001 that the right to defend countries and peoples from acts of
terrorism does not provide license to meet violence with violence, but rather
"must be exercised with respect for moral and legal limits in the choice of
ends and means. The guilty must be correctly identified, since criminal
culpability is always personal and cannot be extended to the nation, ethnic
group or religion to which the terrorists may belong".
"International cooperation must also address the root causes upon which
international terrorism feeds. In fact, the present terroristic challenge has a
strong socio-cultural component. Young people travelling abroad to join the
ranks of terrorist organizations often come from poor immigrant families,
disillusioned by what they feel as a situation of exclusion and by the lack of
integration and values in certain societies. Together with the legal tools and
resources to prevent citizens from becoming foreign terrorist fighters,
Governments should engage with civil society to address the problems of
communities most at risk of radicalization and recruitment and to achieve their
satisfactory social integration".
The Cardinal also recalled Pope Francis' declaration during his trip to Albania,
that "Let no one consider themselves to be the "armour" of God while planning
and carrying out acts of violence and oppression! May no one use religion as a
pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of
every man and woman" while also adding " At the same time, it should be stressed that to counter the phenomenon
of terrorism, achieving cultural understanding among peoples and countries and
social justice for all is indispensable".
.png)
