INTERFAITH DIATRIBES TURN TO DIALOGUE IN KRAKOW AT ANNUAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 VATICAN 000095 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL SOCI PGOV KIRF VT PL SUBJECT: INTERFAITH DIATRIBES TURN TO DIALOGUE IN KRAKOW AT ANNUAL SANT'EGIDIO CONFERENCE VATICAN 00000095 001.2 OF 004 ¶1. (U) Summary: At the 22nd edition of an annual interfaith dialogue to promote peace, held this year in Krakow with thousands of observers, hundreds of senior religious and political leaders expressed great agreement on themes like food security. They also engaged in some interfaith sniping, until organizers from the Community of Sant'Egidio -- a Catholic lay movement -- took participants to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau. The horror of those camps refocused participants on the theme of the conference and facilitated a dramatic closing ceremony at which religious leaders gave political leaders an exhortation for peace (text at paragraph 11). The event set the stage for next year's interfaith encounter in Barcelona. Embassy Vatican will follow up with many of the participants in coming months to continue the dialogue in smaller venues. End Summary. Big Event Draws Lots of Big Names -------------- ¶2. (U) From September 6-8, the Community of Sant'Egidio - a Catholic lay movement with 50,000 active members worldwide - held its 22nd annual interfaith prayer for peace conference in Krakow, Poland. The event drew nearly 3,000 Sant'Egidio volunteers from across Europe, and around 270 "special guests." The latter included political luminaries like European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, former IMF Director Michel Camdessus, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the President of Montenegro, the Foreign Ministers of Malta and Poland, and legislators and diplomats from across Europe. Even more importantly for the purposes of interfaith communication, there were scores of senior religious leaders from around the world, including 11 active and retired Catholic Cardinals, American Cardinal McCarrick among them; the Chief Rabbis of Poland and Israel; Muslim leaders from Indonesia, India, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Lebanon, Ivory Coast, and Qatar; Hindu swamis, Buddhist monks, Othodox archbishops of various congregations, leaders of most Protestant communities, and more. The Sant'Egidio leadership was especially delighted, they told Embassy Vatican DCM, to welcome Joshua duBois, head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. ¶3. (U) The theme for the conference this year was "Seventy Years after World War II: Faiths and Cultures in Dialogue." Organizers made much of both the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Poland by Germany and Russia during WWII, and of its 20th anniversary of liberation from Communism. Speakers frequently cited Krakow native Pope John Paul II and his dedication to interfaith communications -- as evidenced by his convocation in Assisi, Italy of the first major interreligious encounter for peace in 1986. Pope Benedict XVI delivered his own personal message to participants, live via satellite, on the conference's first day. Leaders Find Common Ground But Nurse Antagonisms -------------- --- ¶4. (U) There was substantial agreement between participants on a range of uncontroversial topics, and even on a few less-than-unanimous themes. EU Commission President Barroso, for example, drew enthusiastic applause for his opening speech (one of many during the uninterrupted three-hour opening ceremony) that called for the developed world to fulfill its commitments to poor countries and meet the Millennium Development Goals. He also made politically timely references to the need to provide for food security, improve education in the third world, and address climate change. He noted the need to link security and development, and end weapons proliferation. Although he called for better regulation of markets in "over-powerful states," he tempered that statement by saying the world needs globalization now more than ever to recover from the effects of the financial crisis. (Comment: Barroso's speech was coherent and carefully balanced, striking all the right notes for a man who wants another term in his job. End Comment) ¶5. (U) Nevertheless, this interfaith encounter saw more than VATICAN 00000095 002.2 OF 004 its share of religious prejudice and chauvinism. At the opening ceremony, attended by close to 2,000 people in a huge hall and a spillover room with closed circuit coverage, the Rector of Cairo's Al-Azar University had choice words for Europe and the United States (both cited specifically) about its treatment of Muslims. "The problem with interfaith dialogue does not lie in Islam," he began, then added, "but in the West's treatments of Muslims as inferiors." After continuing in that vein for some time, he called for an end to the oppression of Palestinians, before finally commending Pope John Paul II for his outreach to people of other faiths. (The opening ceremony also had a humorous moment, when in the presence of so many European big-shots and right after Barroso's speech, the Choir of a Polish Basilica sang an enthusiastic rendition of "I Want to Be in America" from West Side Story.) ¶6. (U) Day two of the conference brought more pointed recriminations between people of different faiths. At a panel discussion on "Market Society, religions and the Challenge of Materialism," Mohammed Sammak Raoundi, political advisor to the Grand Mufti of Lebanon, deviated from prepared remarks to launch into a tirade. He denounced the killing of Muslims in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, particularly decrying the use of unmanned drones. Raoundi said the wars were being fought solely for oil and other resources, and that terrorism was just a "response to the selfish materialism of the West." The moderator cut him off with a (mild) rebuke, and turned the floor over to Swami Shantatmananda of the Ramakrishna Mission in New Delhi. Not to be outdone, the Swami decried British colonialism, which he said had destroyed the spiritual wellbeing of India. ¶7. (U) Not all the day's panels were so lively, and panelists did find many bases for substantial agreement throughout the day, such as opposition to the death penalty. Katherine Marshall, a senior U.S. advisor at the World Bank and one of very few women speakers at the conference, delivered moving remarks on how ending poverty and providing for food security should be a spiritual - not just political -- quest for leaders in the developed world. She called for better information to track financial and economic trends, focused dialogue on topics like fighting corruption, and action on shared priorities like ending human trafficking. Nevertheless, it was clear throughout the day that, despite 22 years of such events, much still divided the participants. Revisiting Atrocities Refocuses Participants -------------- ¶8. (U) On day three, however, Sant'Egidio organizers put together a deeply moving series of events that ended the interreligious sniping. As their first order of business, they suggested that conference participants fast or at least reduce their food intake, in order to empathize with Muslim participants who were still fasting for Ramadan. Many participants took up the suggestion, which became increasingly meaningful at the first event of the day: private guided tours, in eight languages, of the Auschwitz camp. The visit to the site of Nazi atrocities had a salutary effect - most participants were too horrified to speak much. A stop at the nearby Birkenau death camp came next. Participants needed no words at all there, marching silently for twenty minutes along the train tracks that carried so many millions to their deaths. A poignant ceremony, which included a powerful speech by an Auschwitz survivor and recitation of the Jewish prayer for mourners, ended the visit. The evening brought individual prayer services for different faith communities and a colorful closing ceremony where religious leaders delivered a message of peace to political leaders (text follows at paragraph 11). ¶9. (U) Also at the closing ceremony, organizers announced that next year's peace conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain. It will be hard to top the drama of Poland, but the Cardinal of Barcelona beamed as he announced that participants will finally see the Sacred Family Church completely finished, after over 100 years of construction. VATICAN 00000095 003.2 OF 004 Comment: Need to Keep Up the Dialogue -------------- ¶10. (SBU) Religious leaders clearly had difficulty reaching consensus at this event. Still, the most important thing about the gathering is not consensus in the final document (which is generally so broad that it would be hard for participants to disagree about them) but the organizers' success in bringing so many influential leaders together at all. Sant'Egidio presented the leaders with a unique opportunity to preview and test different approaches to the challenging world of interfaith dialogue and its practical application to the promotion of peace. It also offered religious leaders the opportunity to substantially engage each other on the margins of the meeting, away from the constraints that they may have at home. It is perhaps because they are risking criticism at home --attending a meeting organized by a Catholic movement and with the participation of representatives of different beliefs and non-believers -- that some posturing during the public events was inevitable. At the end of the day, Sant'Egidio provided a free and flexible platform to kick off substantial dialogue that would be hard to replicate in capitals or at the UN in New York or Geneva. It's also clear that Sant'Egidio is a master at organizing such events, and in drawing the maximum drama out of them. Over the coming year, Embassy Vatican will reach out to many of the conference participants - and other partners in interfaith discussions - to continue these discussions in more intimate settings. (This cable was prepared by Embassy Vatican, and coordinated with ConGen Krakow.) End Comment. Text of Interfaith Message of Peace -------------- ¶11. (U) Following is the text of the message religious leaders passed to politicians and diplomats at the closing ceremony: Men and women of different religions, we convened in the ancient city of Cracow, seventy years after the outbreak of World War II, to pray, to dialogue with each other, to foster a spiritual humanism of peace. We pay tribute to the memory of John Paul II, a son of this land. He was a master of dialogue and a tenacious witness of the holiness of peace, capable of providing the world with a vision even in difficult times: it is the spirit of Assisi. That very spirit has blown through a number of peaceful changes that took place in the world. It blew in 1989, twenty years ago, when Poland and other Eastern European countries were restored to freedom. In September 1989 men and women of different religions, gathered in Warsaw by the Community of Sant'Egidio, firmly stated their love for peace: "War never again!" We have remained faithful to this spirit even when many people, in recent years, maintained that violence and war can solve problems and conflicts in our world. The bitter lesson of World War II has often been forgotten, though it was a tremendous tragedy in human history. We went as pilgrims to Auschwitz, aware of the abyss into which humankind had fallen. We needed to come back here, into the abyss of evil, to better understand the heart of history! Such immense pain cannot be forgotten! We need to look at the pains and sorrows of our world: people at war, poverty, the horror of terrorism, the many victims of hatred. Here, we heeded the plea of many people who suffer. Entire peoples are hostage to war and poverty, and many are forced to leave their homes. Many have just vanished, were kidnapped or lack a secure life. Our world is disoriented by the crisis of a market that believed VATICAN 00000095 004.2 OF 004 it was almighty, and by an often faceless and soulless globalization. Globalization is a unique opportunity, yet the world has often preferred to live it as a clash of civilisations and religions. There can be no peace when dialogue between peoples is extinguished. No human being, no people, is ever an island! Regardless of their differences, our religious traditions strongly testify that a world with no spirit will never be human. They show us the path to return to God, the source of peace. Spirit and dialogue will give courage to our globalized world! A world without dialogue will be enslaved by hatred and fear for the other. Religions do not want war and do not want to be used for war. To speak of war in the name of God is blasphemous. No war is ever holy. Humanity is always defeated by violence and terror. Spirit and dialogue show the way to live together in peace. We have discovered, even more clearly, that dialogue delivers from fear and distrust. It is an alternative to war. It does not weaken anyone's identity but enables us to rediscover the best of ourselves and of the others. Nothing is lost with dialogue! Dialogue writes a better history, while conflict opens up abysses. Dialogue is the art of living together. Dialogue is the gift we want to make to this 21st century. Let us start afresh from the memory of World War II, from the prophecy of John Paul II, and be pilgrims of peace. With patience and courage, let us give shape to a new era of dialogue, uniting together in peace those who hate and ignore each other, all peoples, and all humankind. May God grant the entire world, every man and every woman, the wonderful gift of peace! End text. NOYES