Rome (AsiaNews) - Today, at the Pontifical Urbanianum University, an international symposium organized by AsiaNews is being held to deepen our understanding of the present and the future of Asia and to celebrate 10 years of our online news agency.
Before the superiors of PIME (Pontifical
Institute for Foreign Missions ) even thought about running a daily
online news agency, I had tried to get work as a special correspondent in Asia,
particularly in China . The
response from several newspaper editors was : Asia is too far away, too distant.
It
only took a few months to break down this barrier towards the East: in an
instant, because of globalization , we were invaded by Asian commodities and businessmen
, tourists, travelers and the poor of Asia. At
the same time , transfers of production lines to places with cheaper labor increased
and European exports found new markets. And
as if that were not enough, in recent years wars, refugees, the search for raw
materials have forced us to deal with this giant.
10
years later we can say that AsiaNews.it was born to correct the stymied and
provincial vision of a Europe that closes in on itself, and especially to
awaken interest in the West for Asia and its evangelization.
Time has confirmed how right our intuition
was, in borrowing from the missionary desire and momentum of John Paul II, who already
in the World Youth Day in Manila (1995) had prophesied that "Asia is the
continent to be evangelized in the Third Millennium " .
In
truth, it must be said that too often the West has turned to Asia only driven by
profit and economic opportunities , enjoying the stability of the authoritarian
governments of the continent as a guarantee of peace of mind , more revenue, a clamp
on terrorism.
The problems of pollution , corruption , slave-labor, refugees who have soared in step with the industrialization and urban sprawl seemed to be a " collateral victim " , a hot potato that we could casually leave the Asians to deal with . But in recent years we have witnessed the same problems at home, noting that the world is one and the family of nations is one. The criterion of profit, of one-dimensional man creates similar and opposing problems here and there: human slavery, or the eradication of the workers' human dignity. The spiraling unemployment we are painfully witnessing in Italy and in Europe is the result of Western appeasement towards the exploitation of labor in Asia, terrorism is the result of a deafness to the question of respect for rights and freedom that comes from populations of Asia .
For this reason AsiaNews has focused on the religious freedom
of individuals and communities: it is the basis of all human rights , the pivot
on which the dignity of every man, who is created by God , turns. A God of freedom and encounter. Guaranteeing
religious freedom will ensure coexistence between groups and nations and help
avoid both fundamentalism , where one religion dominates another, and secularism
, where the contribution of religions to society are marginalized, according to
the teaching of Benedict XVI.
In
this we need to remember the great contribution that the Churches of Asia are
giving the entire world with their witness and martyrdom, particularly many
Western Churches that are somewhat dazed by a growing relativism and lazily
living off past glories. The
Churches of Asia, despite being numerically small, "give of their poverty"
and with their evangelizing force have already responded to Pope Francis' call
to move out to the existential and geographical margins of society. All of this is an invitation to learn from them,
but also to take part in the evangelization of Asia, by offering the greatest
treasure: the salvation that was given to us by Jesus Christ, the source of a
true humanism to all four corners of the globe. And
AsiaNews, this tiny tool of mission, is a bridge and a door to "go out
." We
thank God for these 10 years, we thank Mother Teresa , to whom are agency is
dedicated and all you our readers and friends who support us with your help and
your prayers .