With this publication the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice would like to present

a series of lectures which help to place the fears of foreigners which people
have in Malta today in a wider context. These lectures challenge us Maltese
to go beyond our fears and reflect on the tenets of the discourse which is
pervading the way we are thinking today. What does it mean to be Maltese?
What does it mean to be Christian and Catholic? How can we reconcile our fears
with our Christian, or at least, humanistic values? Are we really experiencing a
cataclysmic invasion by Africans in Malta today? Or is it rather a wake up call
to make the leap from a post-colonial mentality marked by fear and isolation
towards a neo-European mentality infused by a sense of self-confidence and
solidarity? The authors of these lectures are eminent persons of Faith who
have a very wide experience of social issues.….What we are proposing here is
a serene reflection on a possible way forward into a world where cultures are
more than ever on the move, not following centuries old silk roads any more but
swaying across deserts, mountain ranges and the open seas

ÇENTRU FIDI U ÌUSTIZZJA ISTITUT PAULO FREIRE

227, Triq il-Merkanti 16, Misra˙ it-13 ta’ Diçembru

OPENING UP
Valletta VLT 1170 Ûejtun ZTN 1021
Tel: 2125 1538 Tel: 2169 4583
Email: cfj@jesuit.org.mt Email: freire@onvol.net
a path beyond fear
www.jesuit.org.mt/justice www.pfi.org.mt

ISBN 978-99932-0-846-4
Çentru Fidi u Ìustizzja
OPENING UP
a path beyond fear

Çentru Fidi u Ìustizzja

2010
 Table of Contents

Introduction: The need to go beyond our fears ................................05

Peace, Violence and Religions ...........................................................09

H.E. Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino
(St Aloysius’ College: February 2007)

Living with Others who are Different: ................................................17

A Christian perspective
Professor Andrea Riccardi
(Mediterranean Conference Centre: November 2007)

The Priority of Culture in Us and Them .............................................31

President Emeritus Edward Fenech Adami
(Cyprus: November 2008)
Copyright © 2010
First published in 2010 by Centru Fidi u Ìustizzja
The Contribution committed Lay Persons ........................................37
Çentru Fidi u Ìustizzja are called upon to make in Public Life
227, Triq il-Merkanti
Fr Fernando Franco SJ
Valletta VLT 1170
Tel: 2125 1538 (Phoenicia Hotel: April 2009)
Email: cfj@jesuit.org.mt
www.jesuit.org.mt/justice Epilogue ...............................................................................................49
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the
purpose of research and review, no part of this publication may be The Main Contributors of this book ...................................................57
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN 978-99932-0-846-4
Introduction

Malta is the smallest State in the European Union. Our population is

around four hundred thousand and the area of the Maltese archipelago
is three hundred and sixteen square kilometres.

Two recent events have had an impact on Malta in the past few years.
These have been our joining the European Union and the recent large
influx of irregular immigrants from sub Saharan Africa in precarious
boats. Both these events have provoked fears: fears of losing our
identity as Maltese; fears of losing our religion and traditions. In the case
of our joining the Union most of these fears were “counterbalanced”
by the prospects of greater economic stability.1 The process leading
up to joining the European Union was quite a delicate and difficult
process since it polarized the country. However, after the referendum
and election of 2003 there has been a very positive outcome: Malta
went beyond its fears and joined the Union and the main political parties
became united in accepting the will of the majority. They are now both
bickering over which one of them is most able to make the best out
of European membership for the benefit of Malta and the Maltese.
However, with regards to the issue of irregular immigration our fears
have grown beyond proportion. We are witnessing the development
of a mainstream discourse which pictures sub Saharan Africans as the
epitome of all our ills and problems, a discourse that is pervading the
public sphere, from party politics to newspapers to blogs.

1. Due to the world recession economic stability is threatened even in the EU. However, it is clear that
Malta would have suffered much more economically had it not joined the EU and the Euro zone.
6 Opening up
Malta is therefore today at a crucial crossroads. It could choose to
become overwhelmed by its fears or it could look at these new realities
as a golden opportunity to grow and to break out of its closed and
insular mentality. Whether we like it or not we must accept that we are
no longer a remote island, shielded by the white foam of the waves that
batter our shores. We have entered the “global village”. Rather than
being taken up by paralyzing and destructive fears we must look at
these changes as a new opportunity to open up; to try to understand the
world around us in order to discover our new role as a people living on
the crossroads of different civilizations. We were a strategic colony under
one important power or other, for thousands of years. We were a fortress
on the border of one or other strong empire. Since Independence we
developed into a tourist attraction. This development has helped us to
open up, with the prospect of economic necessity. However on a deeper
level our mentality has remained somewhat closed: accepting tourists
for their money is one matter; opening up to the world around us and
looking at this positively may be quite another.
When Pope John Paul II visited Malta in 2001 he told us that Malta has a
special vocation:
Malta is at the centre of the Mediterranean. You therefore have a
unique vocation to be builders of bridges between the peoples
of the Mediterranean basin, between Africa and Europe. The
future of peace in the world depends on strengthening dialogue
and understanding between cultures and religions. Continue in
your traditions of hospitality, and continue in your national and
international commitment on behalf of freedom, justice and peace.2
It is a fact that due to its very rich history Maltese culture has many
common elements with peoples living both in the North and the South
of the Mediterranean. With the majority of the Maltese people being
2. Farewell Ceremony- Gudja International Airport (9 May 2001) http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/
john_paul_ii/travels/sub_index/trav_greece-syria-malta-2001_it.htm
A Path Beyond Fear 7
practicing Roman Catholics, Malta can surely be a witness to the
richness of its religious roots within the European Union.3 If it is to be a
continent which fosters peace, it is essential that Europe goes beyond
strengthening its economic infrastructure and rediscovers its soul.
In recent years there has been a sharp increase of persons mainly from
Sub Saharan Africa leaving the North African coast in overcrowded
boats to seek a new life in Europe. Malta has received a relatively large
number of irregular immigrants. In 2008 alone a total of 2,775 irregular
immigrants reached Malta. In 2009 (until November) the numbers were
lower, with 1.475 migrants who were intercepted at sea or landed in
Malta.4 The Maltese authorities feel abandoned by other countries,
especially those of the European Union in facing this issue alone.
Another worrying fact is that many Maltese now see irregular immigrants
as a threat, and racist sentiments are on the increase.5 There were also
arson attacks mainly on the property of persons who have spoken up for
the rights of these immigrants.
With this publication the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice is presenting
a series of lectures which help place the fears of foreigners, which
people have in Malta today, in a wider context. These lectures challenge
us Maltese to go beyond our fears and reflect on the tenets of the
discourse which is pervading the way we think today. What does it mean
to be Maltese? What does it mean to be Christian and Catholic? How
can we reconcile our fears with our Christian, or at least, humanistic
values? Are we really experiencing a cataclysmic invasion by Africans
in Malta today? Or is it rather a wake-up call to make the leap from a
post-colonial mentality, marked by fear and isolation, towards a neo-
European mentality infused by a sense of self-confidence and solidarity?
3. A clear example of this is the rejection by the European Parliament to include any reference to
Europe’s Christian roots in drawing up its Constitution (A Constitution which has not been ratified)
4. See: Jesuit Refugee Service: Do they know? Asylum seekers testify to life in Libya, Malta 2009 p.3.
5. See: Fundamental Rights Agency: European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey Data in
Focus Reports 2009. The number of votes which extreme right parties have obtained during the last
European Elections in Malta are another indicator.
8 Opening up
(The authors of these lectures are eminent persons of faith who have a
very wide experience of social issues.)
These are some of the questions that are addressed in the lectures
being included in this publication. H.E. Cardinal Martino, Professor
Andrea Riccardi and Fr. Fernando Franco were the guest speakers
at the annual lecture organised by the Centre for Faith and Justice in
2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively.6 The lecture has become an annual
occasion that offers the opportunity to explore crucial themes that lie
at the core of the Centre’s work. H.E. Dr. Fenech Adami’s contribution
was delivered at the International Meeting for Peace organised by the
Community of Sant’Egidio.
In disseminating these lectures in printed form, the Jesuit Centre for Faith
and Justice hopes that a serious reflection is initiated in Malta so that
we move beyond our fears, and look at globalization positively and as a
challenge to open up. What we are proposing here is a serene reflection
on a possible way forward into a world where cultures are more than ever
on the move, not following centuries-old silk roads anymore but swaying
across deserts, mountain ranges and the open seas.
I would like to thank all the distinguished contributors of this publication.
As well as Mario Cardona who shared his experiences in the Epilogue. A
big thank you also to Fr Mario Jaccarini SJ and Ms Maria Agius for their
work in translating the second lecture which was originally delivered in
Italian and to Christine and Sandro Rossi for proofreading all the text.
Fr Edgar Busuttil SJ
Director, Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice
6 The Centre invited Cardinal Martino together with the Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace
and Prof Andrea Riccardi together with the Commission for Justice and Peace and Discern.
Peace, violence and religions
A Lecture delivered by His Eminence Cardinal Renato Martino
at St Aloysius College, on the 17 February 2007
I am very happy to be here at St Aloysius College to offer a reflection on
the theme of Peace, Violence and Religions. This is not a simple subject
to discuss because it involves some of the most complex situations of
our contemporary world: the new look of war and peace. Conflict in
general and war in particular, have, in fact, changed their appearance.
They are more horizontal than vertical, more widespread than localized
more fragmented than united, seen almost daily rather than rarely,
closer than they are distant and they are more immaterial (and even
virtual) than they are material.
The events of September 11, 2001 showed that the death of three
thousand people was easily carried out – as easily as a hijacker
carrying a knife onto a plane. In this regard a careful observer spoke of
“democratic wars”.1 These significant changes were brought about by
the phenomenon of globalization. It is necessary to take into account the
completely new context in which the problems of peace and of war are
found, in order to identify the negative conditions in the quest for peace
and to discern the new opportunities to be employed with evangelical
hope to create better conditions for peace.
Globalization has changed the social meaning of peace, but has not
changed the anthropological and ethical dimension of peace. An
additional interpretation of today’s world, in its main dynamics and
prophetic courage is needed to announce the call for peace in this
1. A. GLUCKSMANN, Dostoievski à Manhattan, Robert Laffont, Paris 2002; tr. it., Dostoevskij a Manhattan,
Liberal Libri, Firenze 2002.
10 Opening up
new globalized context. At the same time, it also serves as a means for
recovering the full meaning and understanding of peace.
We are then able to seek out the new requirements of peace, along with
the roads we can travel to build it and to better realize where we have
fallen short in our quest. In this new context we must ask ourselves, above
all, what is to be the role of religion in the promotion of peace?
Religion, every authentic religion, must never become a pretext for
fuelling conflict, hatred and violence. I am deeply convinced that a
sincere religious sentiment is the principal antidote for violence and
conflicts. In this perspective, individuals and religious communities must
clearly manifest a complete and radical rejection of violence, all violence,
starting with the violence that would wrap itself in the mantle of religion,
even appealing to the Holy Name of God as it commits offences against
humanity. There is no religious end that can justify the practice of man
committing violence against man. Indeed, in the present moment of
history, humanity is waiting to see believers make gestures of peace and
solidarity, and humanity is waiting to hear words of hope.
At this time, I would ask you to allow me to call to mind the great Pope
John Paul II. The beloved Pope John Paul constantly invited believers to
cultivate dialogue, and to sustain it with the concrete commitment never to
stop listening to one another. He indicated mutual listening as a response
to the disturbing questions that we face, as a form of behaviour useful for
dispelling atmospheres of distrust and misunderstanding. John Paul II
invited us to take note, everyday with renewed wonder, of the variety by
which human life is manifested and of the great number of unique gifts,
proper to different cultures and traditions, that form a multifaceted and
many-shaped linguistic, cultural and artistic cosmos: this immense variety
is called to form an integrated whole in an exchange of ideas and in
dialogue, for the enrichment and well-being of all people.
A Path Beyond Fear 11
This enlightening teaching of John Paul II is very useful for meeting the
problems of our day. With the situations of conflict facing our world as
it moves into the third millennium, dialogue between religions must find
its loftiest and most noble motivation in the promotion of justice and
solidarity. The believers of the various religions need to have a profound
awareness of the degree to which wounds are still open and bleeding: the
wounds of injustice; of ethnic and social conflicts; of violence and war;
of disregard for the rights of individuals and of peoples, which are the
source of suffering and endemic poverty; of unemployment and a loss of
dignity; of large migratory movements and of new threats of war that are
always lying in wait. Believers need to pray so that we may come to know
the way of just relations among ourselves. There can be no true peace
without respect for the dignity of individuals and peoples, for the rights
and duties of each person, without an equitable distribution of benefits
and burdens between individuals and society as a whole. Oppression
and marginalization are often the origin of manifestations of violence and
terrorism. Tragic situations, found in many parts of our world, demonstrate
the absolute necessity of dialogue and negotiation. We must open our
hearts and minds to the great challenges that await us: the defence of the
sacredness of human life under all circumstances; the promotion of the
family, the fundamental cell of society; the elimination of poverty, thanks
to efforts made to foster development, reduce debt and open up channels
of international trade; respect for human rights in every situation, with
special attention to those people who are most vulnerable — children,
women and refugees; disarmament, the reduction of the sale of arms to
poor countries and the consolidation of peace after the end of conflicts;
the fight against widespread diseases and access for the poorest to basic
health care and medicines; safeguarding the environment and preventing
natural disasters; the rigorous application of international law and
international conventions.
Dialogue between religions is a necessary prerequisite for meeting the
complex and difficult needs of our world. Above all, dialogue makes it
possible for us to overcome the danger of religious fundamentalism,
12 Opening up
which today is very threatening and widespread. Not long ago, there was
a certain political fundamentalism that was predominant; today, however,
there is often the risk of falling into forms of religious fundamentalism. Just
as in the recently ended twentieth century certain ideological concepts
corrupted the truth of politics, so the power of men over other men
threatens today to exploit religions, deeply disfiguring their intrinsic truth.
The true face of religion is tarnished if religion is used to justify men fighting
against other men. Despite this year’s tragic terrorist attacks, with their
devastating toll of death and suffering, we can nonetheless take solace in
the enormous progress that the human conscience continues to make,
strengthening the conviction that no authentically religious cause can bring
us to treat another person as an enemy against whom we must fight.
The message of Jesus invites us to place value on what we share in
common and on what unites us, and to see these as the foundation
and measure of those things that set individuals and peoples apart. Of
course, considering various and diversified forms of social and political
organization can have a powerfully innovative and liberating value with
respect to mechanisms of oppressive and unjust force. Looking beyond
borders, of whatever type these may be, and learning from others —
seeing a value in their and our own diversity — are elements that free us
from narrow limits and that allow people to come together and appreciate
each other. All of this promotes peace and solidarity. In certain moments
of history, however, a proper awareness of just how much we are all
alike in our inner-most being, despite our differences, will have an even
more innovative significance for relations among peoples. This same
positive effect will result from correctly seeing the value of our differences,
that is, understanding them as representing the inexhaustible richness
of our shared human nature. Political regimes are sometimes afraid of
this demanding truth. But they can overcome this fear by being open to
considering the value of the diversity of others, by welcoming a spirit of
dialogue; but even more, they can overcome this fear by recognizing the
common bonds uniting all men and women in the one human family. This
kind of recognition represents a great service to humanity and to human
A Path Beyond Fear 13
rights. There is a time to learn from diversity; there is a time to learn from
those things that we share in common. In our present day, it is this second
scenario that must be more prevalent.
In the light of this demanding perspective it is possible to meet the most
dangerous challenge of our time: terrorism. Terrorism is among the most
brutal of behaviours tearing the international community apart today and
sowing death, hatred, desire for revenge and retaliation, and a spirit of
opposition. This malevolent social phenomenon has always been present,
even in the past, but in recent years, especially after the end of the Cold
War, it has shown alarming new outbreaks. It has been transformed
from the isolated acts of single extremists into a sophisticated network of
political, technological and economic cooperation; it often has access to
immense financial resources and plans strategies on a vast scale, striking
innocent people who are in no way connected with the issues involving
the terrorists. Places of daily life are targeted and not military objectives
within the context of a declared war. Terrorism plans its activities in
secrecy and strikes surreptitiously, outside the scope of the rules by which
men have always tried in some way to regulate their conflicts. Using their
own followers as weapons to be unleashed against defenceless people
who are not forewarned, terrorist organizations show forth with ever
greater vehemence the death-instinct that drives them, an instinct that is
already implicitly found in their choice of terror as a political and military
strategy. All of this makes terrorism unacceptable in the most absolute of
manners. It is based on contempt for human life. No end can justify the
sacrifice of human life, since man is always an end and never a means for
a further end. The absolute dignity of the human person derives from the
fact that men and women are, in the entire universe, the only creature that
God has willed for itself.2
Terrorism, besides killing innocent victims, gives rise to isolation, distrust
and closed-mindedness, all of which inevitably lead to a climate of
2. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 24.
14 Opening up
perennial hatred. Individuals and nations struck by terrorism are tempted
to turn to retaliation and revenge: in this way, violence engenders further
violence and brings into its tragic vicious circle even future generations,
which inherit the hatred that divides the present generations. Terrorism is
an attack on human dignity: it is an aggression committed against every
person because all people can be targeted by it; it is for that reason an
offence committed against all humanity. And it is for this same reason
that there exists a right to defend oneself against terrorism. International
cooperation in the fight against terrorist activity must also include a
particular commitment on the level of politics, to resolve with courage
and determination the problems that, in certain dramatic situations, can
add fuel to terrorism. The recruitment of terrorists, in fact, is more easily
accomplished in social contexts where hatred is sown, where rights are
trampled, and in situations where injustices have been tolerated for too
long.
In his message for the World Day of Peace 2006, the Holy Father
Benedict XVI warned that at the roots of terrorism we often find
fundamentalism or nihilism. Fundamentalism consists in the belief that
one is in complete possession of the truth, such that one can impose
it by force. Truth, however, must be continually sought; it can only
be contemplated and never possessed, because God is truth (cf. Jn
14:6). For this reason, any kind of fundamentalism is a behaviour that
is radically contrary to faith in God. To the nature of the truth that one
presumes to possess, whether this truth is philosophical, political or
religious in nature, there correspond different forms of intolerance that
can result in terrorist violence. Nihilism too, that is, the belief that no truth
and no real objective foundation exists, can be used to justify terrorist
violence as the extreme cry of desperation or as the lone affirmation
of a single individual. Every authentic believer knows that the Truth is
larger than the believer himself. For this reason, it is profanation and
blasphemy to proclaim oneself a terrorist in God’s name, to kill and visit
violence upon people in God’s name. In such cases, not only are men
and women being exploited, but God too is the subject of exploitation,
A Path Beyond Fear 15
in that one believes to be totally in possession of God’s truth rather than
being possessed by that truth. In the end, terrorism is a new chapter
in the history of a mankind that wants to make itself God by definitively
ridding itself of God.
No religion can tolerate terrorism, much less preach it. This is particularly
true for the great monotheistic religions. Terrorism, in fact, is contrary
to faith in God the Creator of mankind, contrary to a God who cares for
people and loves them, contrary to a God who is Father of all men and
women. It is totally contrary to faith in Christ the Lord, the One who, sent
by the Father, said to us: “Love one another; even as I have loved you,
so also must you love one another” (Jn 13:34); the One who prayed to
the Father that we “may all be one” (Jn 17:21) in him. For this reason, the
Christian faith, the great monotheistic religions and the great religions
of mankind should all work together among themselves to spread a
greater awareness of the unity of the human race, in order to eliminate
the cultural causes of terrorism, teaching that the dignity of the human
person is great in God’s eyes and that violence can never be done in the
name of the One who is Love. From an ever greater cooperation there
can arise a common effort, a spiritual and educational effort, against
fundamentalism, regardless of the guise under which it may operate.
Public opinion is often led to believe that there is a connection between
terrorism and religion. Nothing could be further from the truth. Such an
erroneous conception can only be effectively corrected by cooperation
between religions with the intention of showing in the behaviour of
their own members the complete incompatibility between religion and
violence. This is a new area for ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue
and cooperation, a new form of service that religions can render to
humanity and to peace among peoples. A commitment of this type
on the part of religions should be particularly careful to follow the path
of constant dialogue that opens the participating parties to mutual
understanding, respect and trust. There is a right to defend oneself
against terrorism, but we must not forget that the true defence against
16 Opening up
terrorism is found in the spiritual and cultural order. Even when human
justice has been restored, we must not forget that, as Saint Gregory the
Great wrote, “human justice, when compared to divine justice, is injustice;
it is like a lantern shining in the darkness: placed in the bright splendour
of the sun, its light can no longer be seen”.3 Love passes through justice
and, in a certain sense, seeks justice and sustains it, but it is not reduced
to justice. Love fosters and assists reconciliation, bringing it ever closer
to absolute justice, which is Divine Mercy. The service that religions can
render to peace and to the fight against terrorism consists precisely in the
pedagogy of love and reconciliation.
Peace, which is an enormously great good, although sometimes difficult
to achieve, is the result of a just order in the relationships existing between
human beings, regardless of their race, colour, culture or social class.
This peace is possible on the condition that the dignity of the human
person and fundamental human rights are respected. It is a peace that
calls on all people to fulfill their own duty towards others. This entails a
sincere cooperation, an attitude of responsibility, a society built on truth,
justice, freedom and above all on love. Everyone must make their proper
contribution to the promotion of peace through daily gestures of peace.
Gestures of peace, at every level, are one of the most effective means
for bringing about peace. Such gestures arise in the heart and are an act
of the will; they find expression in generous decisions aimed at mutual
understanding, reconciliation and forgiveness. The hearts of those who
make gestures of peace become oriented to the common good and
such gestures are a powerful source of social and civil education. Peace,
besides being the result of political decisions made at various national
and international levels, is also the fruit of countless gestures of peace
made by each one of us: it is here that we find the secret of that spiritual
revolution that is so urgently needed in our modern day, a spiritual
revolution capable of renewing hearts and minds, and therefore capable
of making the world a place of greater solidarity and of greater goodness.
3. Moralium, V, c. 37, par. 67; PL, LXXV, 716-717.
Living with others who are different:
a Christian perspective1
A Lecture delivered by Professor Andrea Riccardi
at The Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta, on the 29th November 2007
The sea unites and mountains divide. This is the underlying thesis of
the thinking of Ferdinand Braudel, the great Mediterranean historian,
when he examined the history of this sea. The sea facilitates exchanges,
voyages, movement of populations, but the sea also facilitates intrusion
and even invasions. There are no frontiers in the sea.
This is also the story of Malta: a history of exchanges, of meetings and
of clashes. This is the history of an island in the sea. It is also the story
of the conflict between Christians and Muslims around Malta. We know
that Christians and Muslims were not (and are not) two blocks but are
two composite realities; nevertheless they are very different religious and
cultural universes.
Malta, throughout her troubled history, had to choose to which of these
cultural universes she would belong. The choice was made for her
by the armed battles and resistances. It was however also made by
Malta through the participation of her people in the Christian faith that
has permeated the everyday life and culture of the Maltese people.
Christian faith is not rooted in weapons but in people’s choices. And
yet, Malta is also united to the Arab world. One has only to consider
her linguistic heritage. Through this choice, even in difficult times, Malta
has shown that she can create for herself an identity in the heart of the
Mediterranean, but can also be a bridge-reality with other worlds. Malta
does not live on her own; she is European, Mediterranean-European,
1. The original lecture was delivered in Italian and has been translated into English
18 Opening up
energised by the Christian religion of her people. But Europe needs
to discover that there exists a southern European frontier towards the
Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean was the sea of conflicts during the Second World
War, the sea of the Cold War; Then came the age of globalisation. We
remember, at least we of a certain age, though not that old, how in
1989 we hoped for the great peace, but this did not happen. Today
the globalised world has changed everything for us. Today everything
approaches each other. Not only through the media, the distant draws
near in a surprising way. We are no longer alone with others similar to
us. What was once distant comes closer and can also be threatening,
as happens with terrorism. What is distant knocks on our doors through
immigration.
Different peoples live together. Yet often it is difficult to live together, as
can be seen in the history of the Balkans. The great cities of the world
have become places where people of different ethnicities and religions
live side by side. This does not happen only in Europe, not only in the
west, but also in Asia and in Africa. The fact that one lives together with
others has become one of the greatest problems of our times, but is also
a reality.
However – I have to say – while people are mixing together, throughout
the world, all countries and communities are rediscovering their own
identities. Globalisation has led us not to a generalised cosmopolitanism
but to new self-discovery of identity. Because one cannot live in a
large world, confused, open to all currents, bombarded by the media,
without asserting who one is, which is one’s true identity, which is our
true identity. Therefore identity is like clothes: you cannot live naked,
unless in a nudist camp, in everyday life you do not live naked, because
it is cold, because you feel exposed and vulnerable, and also because
without clothes we are all the same. To live in a large world that is full of
cold currents we need clothes.
A Path Beyond Fear 19
I know that identity also brings degenerative processes, such as
conflicts, national conflicts, and fundamentalism. Identities oppose each
other; reawaken ancient hatreds, ancient fears, and ancient mistrusts.
Our world is a globalised world populated by many different identities.
That is why there is the risk of conflict. And this is the problem: how can
we live together, with all these identities that are so different from each
other?
The politics of meeting with the other, that of neighbourhood, of
dialogue, becomes a necessity both in local communities and in
international communities. We need to invest in this. The one who has
a strong, serious, true identity has the duty to manage the contact
between those who are near and those who are far away. How can one
live in a world of many identities? This problem is found everywhere: it
is the problem of how different ethnicities live together in Africa: think
about the famous conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda. It is
the problem of minorities. It is also the great question of immigration.
The Catholic Church, since the Second Vatican Council, has proposed
dialogue between other religious worlds in a new way. Pope Paul VI in
1967, in the encyclical Populorum Progressio, presented dialogue as a
way of being Christian in the world. Paul VI, in 1967, spoke of dialogues
between civilisations. This was nearly thirty years, more than twenty
years, before Huntington. Dialogue is a new concept for Catholicism,
but it has ancient roots. Dialogue sinks its roots in love: it is the way
in which, in spite of the fact that you are different, you live together in
love. But be careful, having dialogue does not mean that you lose your
own identity; rather, if you do not know who you are, you cannot create
true and effective dialogue. There is no dialogue without identity. When
Jesus asks us to love our enemies, he is speaking about a love that
knows no frontiers. But to love without frontiers, there is the need of
a Christian heart, because for us Christians, identity is not a vest, or a
uniform. Identity begins in the heart.
20 Opening up
In this time of globalisation, it is a beautiful time to be a Christian: I am
convinced that to be a Christian is a great resource in a world that is full
of fears, with few ideas and much disorientation. Christians, with a heart
full of faith and love, can help fellow citizens who are lost and fearful,
as long as they do not let fear make them hide their talent of being
Christians. Our time is a time of fear: fear of Islam, fear of terrorism,
fear of invasion by others. Everybody has lack of security. We have a
problem of security: security towards those who enter our world. I must
say that there is a culture of fear in our world that advises us to build
walls. But fear is a bad counsellor because it exposes our weakness.
Remember that Pope John Paul II started his pontificate by saying:
“Do not be afraid.” Can we succeed today, us Christians, to look at
our world, this great big world, without fear? I want to ask, why must
we be afraid? In the past there were many more reasons for one to
be afraid: think of Malta, at the frontline of a Europe that was militarily
under siege by overwhelming forces. Think of Malta, a poor country,
which produced so many emigrants, just as Italy did after all. Today the
situation has changed. We Europeans are rich, full of resources, and we
have the possibility of thinking of policies, of lifestyles, that are not solely
dominated by reflexes of fear. And yet we have fear, perhaps even more
than before: perhaps because we are richer, because we have more
to lose. And yet, there is another reason. Today through the media we
know everything and we see everything. Each piece of news, from any
part of the world, reaches us. Formerly we were sheltered, in a way, by
our own ignorance and lack of information. How can we assimilate all
the news that we receive today?
We look at the world from the south of Europe. This is a particular
chessboard. Of all European frontiers, only one is on land – that towards
Russia. All the others border with the sea. But is the ocean a frontier?
The Mediterranean frontier is truly particular. It is the frontier with the
Arab-Islamic world, as well as with Israel and Turkey. But immediately
behind the Arab world is the great sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest
A Path Beyond Fear 21
of continents, the continent of wars, of AIDS. Yes, the Mediterranean
frontier is not only looking towards the Arab world but also towards sub-
Saharan Africa. Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Greece, Cyprus are sections
of this frontier towards the south of the world.
To be a Mediterranean European is a particular reality. It reminds
the whole of Europe that there exists the great south. Mediterranean
Europeans unite the European Union with the great south. And I feel I
can say that we people of the south of Europe feel - have a particular
feeling - towards the south of the world that the bureaucracy of Brussels
cannot grasp. The Greeks have a saying about us Italians: “Same face,
same race”. It is true. And of how many Mediterranean populations can
we say: “Same face, same race”?
The world of the south is full of problems. I don’t have to remind you
of the Middle East: I like to bring to mind Iraq, from where 50,000 flee
each month; in Iraq, in 1987, there was a Christian community that
numbered 1,400,000, but this is now reduced to 300,000. How many
Iraqis and how many Iraqi Christians are there in camps in Syria, Jordan,
and Turkey? Then there is Africa... think of the enormous migratory
thrust that comes from Africa, because of wars, the European crisis, the
aspiration to European well-being. This obliges entire populations to
move to the north.
Emigration? Immigration? I do not want to be alarmist, but I think one
must have the courage to say that it is truly entire populations that are
moving, nearly an invasion. History has known such movements of
peoples: the Barbarians moved, the Mongols moved, the Normans
moved. This is a different situation to the emigration of the Maltese,
Sicilians or Italians. It is entire populations that are moving. It will not be
a mere frontier policy to stem this phenomenon; there’s the need for a
greater policy from the European Union, and there’s the need for good
planning.
22 Opening up
Invasion? The community of Sant’Egidio started in Rome, but today
lives in more than twenty African countries. We experience the reality of
African youths: they are people who no longer believe in their country.
So they decide to leave to seek their fortune elsewhere. It is, very often,
imprudent at the very least. They undergo incredible journeys, crossing
the Sahara desert, the sea, paying enormous sums of money. I have
often spoken to these youths, who want to leave. I say, “But you have
a dignity here in the Ivory Coast. Why do you want to go to Paris or
Rome?” But this is like a race towards a better life; it is the delusion with
your own country.
Fabrizio Gatti, a brave Italian journalist, infiltrated himself among these
immigrants and travelled with them on their journey. He wrote a book
– Bilal. In his opinion this is truly a slave market. He wrote: “Twelve per
cent of the people who leave from Libya towards Tunisia never arrive in
Europe.” And also, “Twelve per cent means that of the 182 passengers
travelling with me in the truck, 22 were destined to die.” How many
people have died in the desert or in the sea?
In 1999 two youths from Guinea Conakry were found dead in the
undercarriage compartment of an aeroplane that had landed in
Brussels. They had wanted to reach Europe, and they left a letter in
which they described the reasons why they had undergone this voyage.
They wrote: “You see that we are sacrificing ourselves and risking our
lives. This is because in Africa we suffer too much. We need you to
fight against this poverty and put an end to the war in Africa.” The letter
ended with these words: “We beg you, Europeans, to help us so that
we could study, in order to be in Africa as you are over there.” It is the
dream of many who arrive in Europe and the dream of those who die
along the way: to live as the people of Europe live. And our televisions
present a picture of an easy life in Europe. Who can stop the youths who
dream in this way? What can be done?
What can be done about the desertification of the Sahel that pushes
A Path Beyond Fear 23
entire populations? I ask today: What can little Malta do when faced with
such a challenge? Today the pressure of immigration is being felt on
this island. We cannot simply be carried away by a reaction of fear as
happens to so many people in Europe; but it is truly a grave problem.
In addition to Malta’s 400,000 inhabitants, one of the highest population
densities, 2,000 other people arrive in Malta yearly. I have made my
calculations: the 1,800 that arrived in the year 2005 would be felt as
if more than 252,000 persons had arrived in Italy. Can you imagine
what would happen in Italy if this happened? The sense of pressure
is understandable. Apart from this, a community such as that of Malta
would want to keep its historic identity. This is understandable and is
also just, because to welcome you need to have your identity.
Faced with this pressure, the reply cannot be that of fear, but perhaps
one needs to look at the problem in a different way. I tell my friends in
Italy: “Let us not let insecurity be our first reaction. We have resources
for a true policy. But this policy cannot be the policy of Malta, because
in the end if Malta is left on her own, one arrives at having to push
away without mercy, leaving people outside, and at this the Christian
conscience rebels. What can be done? I have nothing to teach, I only
have reasoning, reflections, to place before you.
What can be done? New times and new situations require new choices.
The pressure of immigration is a problem common throughout all the
southern flank of the European Union. It can be felt in Cyprus, in Ceuta
and Melilla, Spanish enclaves in Morocco, and in the Canaries. The
countries of first reception have a responsibility. But Italy and Spain
can spread the influx inland. Malta and Cyprus find themselves in great
difficulty. In addition – to be honest – refugees and asylum seekers do
not want to come to Malta or Cyprus but want to go to mainland Europe.
There is therefore the responsibility of the European Union. What
must be done is what the Government of Malta does, in the offices of
government of the European Union, so that the problem of refugees
24 Opening up
does not remain solely the problem of the reception countries but
becomes a European question. The Mediterranean issue cannot be
solely the problem of the coastal countries but is a great international
issue, a European issue.
Here I want to speak of another problem. Europe, the Union, needs
immigrants. I do not think this is a problem for Malta at present, but the
rest of Europe, yes, is seeing a demographic decline. By the year 2030
the population band between age 14 and 64 will decrease by twenty
million. Between 1995 and the year 2000 Europe lost four and a half
million inhabitants for demographic reasons, and replaced them with
five million immigrants. The labour market in Italy and Spain needs
immigrants. A few months ago Franco Frattini, vice president of the
European Commission, said that in twenty years Europe in going to need
twenty million immigrants. In 2005 Italy had a positive natural balance
thanks to the birth of 52,000 children of foreigners. An Italian newspaper
has commented that between 1993 and 2006, if there had been no
immigrants, the population of Italy would have decreased by 650,000.
This therefore is the contradiction of Europe: to push away those who
knock while calling for others to enter. In consequence, if the need
of immigrants is combined to the need of Europe for immigrants, it
cannot happen that the problem of asylum seekers is dumped on the
southern frontier countries. Europe needs to take on the problem, take
upon herself the role of countries of first reception, as an entity that has
complete responsibility of welcome. In this sense the problem of Malta
and Cyprus needs to become a European issue.
The Italians, Sicilians and Maltese certainly have a great responsibility.
The reception must be humanised, because many asylum seekers
come from stories of great sadness and hardship. Their stay in Malta,
while awaiting recognition of their status, must not be a waste of time. I
believe that Malta, supported as should be by the European Union, can
be an opportunity for many refugees to enter into the culture of Europe.
A Path Beyond Fear 25
I am thinking here of the possibility of teaching the English language
(as many of us already come to Malta to learn). Malta would then be
remembered for ever as a beautiful stage in the troubled journey of the
immigrant.
Now, when I state that this is a European issue, am I saying that Malta
has no responsibility towards the immigrants? Your islands, as you
know better than I do, entered the history of Christianity through the
reception they gave to St Paul when he was shipwrecked here: There is
written in the Acts: “Once on shore we learned that the island was called
Malta. The natives showed us extraordinary kindness by lighting a fire
and gathering us all around it, for it had begun to rain and was growing
cold.” (Acts 28: 1, 2) If Paul were to arrive on these islands today,
would he say the same words, that the Maltese are people who show
extraordinary kindness towards the shipwrecked?
It is a question that troubles all Maltese Christians I have spoken to: on
the one hand there is the problem of an island exposed to the arrival of
many, but to be an island is also a responsibility. This is therefore the
question of conscience on which we have to work a lot in the coming
years, because the pressure is not destined to diminish. There is the
need of a Christian contribution: intelligent, generous, creative, that
refuses all simplifications. Nothing is easy in life. And the Christian
conscience can be leaven.
Many may say: “In Malta we are already too many; we do not have
space to receive others!” I remember that during the Second World
War, Switzerland, surrounded by countries at war, was besieged by the
demands of many seeking to enter, especially Jews fleeing persecution
and Nazi extermination. I have to say that the response was not generous.
Many Swiss said: “The boat is full ... The boat is full”. It was a terrible
response that condemned to death many human beings whose only crime
was to be Jews. Today Switzerland repents and asks for forgiveness. I
treasure requests for forgiveness, I like them a lot, but I believe that it would
26 Opening up
be much better if one would think carefully beforehand than to ask for
forgiveness later. In reality the boat was not at all full, so much so that after
the war many Italians went to Switzerland as emigrants, because they were
needed. The response of that day, the result of fear of invasion, of the fear
of causing irritation, was a mistaken response.
Certainly Switzerland is big, and Malta small. But perhaps there is
never the need to say, “The boat is full.” It is not up to me to say what
Malta should do. But since I have been invited to speak, I want to say
something about emigration. The community of Sant’Egidio has been
feeling for more than twenty years that immigration is an opportunity
that we can utilise. We have been working for years so that reception
is made in a humane way. We started a movement, Gente di Pace, that
welcomes immigrants of all ethnicities. A stranger, if he lives well the first
years of his life in a country, continues well on his path. The immigrant is
vulnerable and can therefore be easily caught up in the net of criminality,
or fall into marginality. If frustrated, he may also become aggressive.
There are then the different attitudes of the people who emigrate: for
example Africans tend to emigrate in a definitive way. Great journeys
require a complete detachment from your homeland. It is the choice of
living with others.
Malta on her own, as I have said, is unable to receive all immigrants,
because she must also preserve her people’s historic identity. Identity
must be enriched, it cannot disappear. And I insist that the Union needs
to increasingly take upon itself the responsibility of the southern frontier.
But let us also look into the faces of those who arrive here. The face of
the immigrant is a book that tells a drama. Behind that face is suffering,
war, famine, persecution, there is a question, and there is a dream. For
the Christian, each human being, even if a foreigner, even if an enemy,
remains a human being.
Our Lord, in the parable of the Last Judgement, says to those who are
called into his kingdom, “…I was a stranger and you welcomed me…”
A Path Beyond Fear 27
And to those who are condemned he says, “I was away from home
and you gave me no welcome…” Because of this choice towards the
foreigner, as towards the naked and the hungry, one can risk eternal
life. “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or away from home or
naked or ill or in prison …?” And He replies, “… as often as you did it
for one of my least brothers, you did it for me.” (Mt 25: 31 ff) When the
hungry or foreigner knocks on our door, it is as if it is the Lord himself
who is knocking. This tremendous affirmation shakes our conscience.
But here we could say: in order to respect this Evangelical truth, must
we allow our country to be invaded by strangers who are not even
Christian; must we risk the security of our children? Others may say: that
what you are saying, is Christian fundamentalism.
No, it is not fundamentalism, dear friends. Christian truths are not easy:
they are not flags to hold aloft and compare to others’, but like a worm
gnawing in our conscience that makes us think and be creative. There
are no simple solutions to what is complicated. But never inhumanity!
Never hatred! Never humiliating treatment! The best times in the history
of Christianity are those when we were creative in finding new solutions.
Israel itself, a people that did not want to lose its identity and worship
foreigners, received this commandment: “You shall not molest or oppress
an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.” (Ex 22:
20) The ancient word of Exodus, which I have just read, resounds in the
hearts of today’s Italians or Maltese: we were foreigners in many countries
of the world; we know what it means to be ill-treated, what it means to be
without rights, the unease of being foreigners. I have met Maltese people
in all parts of the world: from Tunisia to the United States.
Therefore, to come towards a conclusion, which in effect is no
conclusion at all, as each country must find its own conclusion; I believe
that the word of the Gospel is a stimulus to find a concrete and humane
way of facing such a complex problem.
28 Opening up
And I want to add – our European societies have the responsibility of
rich countries. Often the stranger is like the foreign woman in the gospel
who asked Jesus for help; but Jesus replied, “It is not right to take the
food of sons and daughters and throw it to the dogs.” And she replied,
“…even the dogs eat the leftovers that fall from their masters’ tables.”
(MT 15: 26, 27) Many ask us for the scraps not for our children’s food.
That is why I say; we rich have at least the responsibility for the scraps.
This is the great problem of aid to countries in the south. I say it to Italy,
my country, which had promised the 0.07% of the GDP to developing
countries, but never kept its promise. I feel the problem of Africa very
deeply – the wars, but also AIDS. The community of Sant’Egidio takes
care of about 30,000 ill Africans. I say this with pride, because I think of
our poor resources that force us to be beggars wherever we go. Listen
to this, if I may take a few minutes: if you ask for aid to build a hospital,
you will find it; if you ask for aid to build a bridge, you will find it; but
if you say, “I would like to ensure that an AIDS patient receives all the
medical help he requires,” and this means that you help him for the rest
of his life unless a vaccine is developed, people will say, “But for how
many years?” And I reply, “For many, I hope”. They would reply, “But I
want to create a memorial, dedicate it to my parents.” It is difficult to find
this kind of aid. But excuse me; I have been sidetracked by something
personal.
I think that our European countries need to have a policy, a way of
looking at things, towards the south of the world. They need to activate
new policies of cooperation. If new policies of cooperation towards the
south of the world are not implemented, the endless line of immigrants
and refugees is not going to stop. We need to offer opportunities to
these youth from the south of the world, here I am thinking of Africans,
to study in their own countries or in Europe, in order to create a well
prepared class of leaders. In Africa a diploma is still enough to ensure
employment. Through cooperation, the forces that push people to
emigrate are weakened. That is why I believe that as Christians we need
A Path Beyond Fear 29
to work on the financial logic of our countries, demanding a policy of
solidarity. Cooperation for development, through effective projects,
helps people to remain in their own countries.
To conclude. I love Malta deeply, because Malta for me represents
my dream for Europe: a Europe for the south, in the heart of the
Mediterranean. According to Giorgio La Pira, the great Italian Christian
who was mayor of Florence and promoter of dialogue between different
religious worlds, now on the road to beatification, for Giorgio La Pira
the Mediterranean is the sea of the three monotheistic religions and the
Mediterranean unites Europe not only to the Arab world but also to black
Africa. Malta is a place of dialogue and peace where different worlds can
meet. Maybe we Europeans need to invest more in this. Malta, small,
frightens no one, but is a place where people from the south, from the
Arab world, and also Europeans feel at home. In the globalised world it
is not only the large that have a role in the international picture; but also
the small that have a vocation. You can never be so small as to not have
an ambition to help the world a little bit. You can never be so small as to
not be able to do a lot to help the world.
And I cannot but remind you, this I have already mentioned to Mr.
President, that actually in Malta, in 1989, a historic meeting was
celebrated, when you were Prime Minister, between Bush and
Gorbachov, a meeting that brought the Cold War to an end. That is why
I feel that countries like Malta are precious bridges. A tiny country, that is
so rich in human resources, populated by people who are so generous
and hard working, can be a decisive place of encounter. Malta, port in
the Mediterranean, can be a port of dialogue. In the globalised world
the role of a port has changed. The port may have lost its importance as
a service to ships; but on the other hand it has great importance to the
routes of history, of cultures and of peoples.
A creative force of hope and love emanates from the Christian
experience. Listen carefully, the Christian faith does not want utopia,
30 Opening up
does not lead us to seek paradise on earth. Reality is often tough.
But when I say tough, I do not want to say that we cannot make it
better. Christian love is not stopped by walls and nets: it worries,
seeks, hopes, thinks, creates, works until in the end the most humane
solution is found. Nothing is impossible to those who believe. What
seemed impossible yesterday becomes possible. I believe, and I say
it with conviction, that the Christian faith is a great resource that can
be the creator of new opportunities and new courage. The Christian
faith releases our hearts from the prison of fear that makes us either
aggressive or inert.
Our world today seems to be turning into a world of clashes between
civilisations. But I believe that we, men and women of good will,
we Christians, have another role: that of building the civilisation of
tomorrow. And the civilisation of tomorrow is not one of conflict but is a
civilisation of peace.
The civilisation of tomorrow will not be that of victory of the civilisation of
the West over Islamic culture, not the victory of the Chinese civilisation
over the West, and so on, but the civilisation of tomorrow will be the
civilisation of living together.
I am convinced that we Christians have a great role to fulfil towards this
goal, and I am convinced, dear Maltese friends and Mr. President, that
your so beautiful Maltese islands have a great historic opportunity, for
us Europeans and for us of the Mediterranean. And I am convinced that
Malta, with her humanity and hospitality, can do a lot.
The priority of culture
in us and them
Contribution by the President of Malta Dr. Edward Fenech Adami
at The International Meeting for Peace organized by the Sant Egidio Community together
with the Church of Cyprus, in Cyprus on the 17th November 2008
When Pope John Paul II visited Malta in 1990 he was met at the airport
by our Minister of Tourism, among others. The Pope told him: “No
doubt you are grateful to St Paul for having provided the occasion for
the first advertisement of the hospitality of the Maltese in the Acts of
the Apostles”. The Minister replied: “Of course, we are grateful, but the
Acts of the Apostles are not the first to carry that advertisement. Before
that Homer in the Odyssey describes the welcome given to Ulysses by
Calypso when he was shipwrecked on the island of Ogygia which we
believe to have been Gozo”.
The Pope did not make any comment. Probably many of you could
easily formulate some retort or other that the Pope had refrained from
making. There is however a connection between the two episodes with
their two versions of hospitality to strangers that is worth bringing out.
Indeed, it has often been by Maltese orators who love to refer to St Paul
and to “the wily” Ulysses as predecessors of the thousands of migrants,
that some call ‘clandestine’ and others ‘undocumented’, who have lately
been reaching our shores in shapes as wretched as those of Ulysses
and Paul.
Apart from indecisive geographic indications, there is one main reason
for identifying Homer’s Ogygia with Malta, or more precisely Gozo
(‘Ogygia’ implies ‘roundish’, which fits Gozo); it is that Calypso, the
daughter of Atlas, is presented as an earth goddess, linked to the
prehistoric matriarchal fertility cult, that had prevailed almost throughout
the Mediterranean, until it was displaced by the Greek pantheon, with
the very masculine Zeus at its apex, thanks to his superior weaponry
32 Opening up
namely the lightning bolts that he hurled down from the skies, with a
cunning that was well above that of the Earth Goddess.
In the case of St Paul, the question asked is: Why, when it is made
crystal clear that Providence wanted Paul to urgently confront Caesar,
should a diversion caused by a heaven-sent storm make him delay
his arrival in Rome by several months? The answer given is that Paul’s
essential mission was to preach the Gospel outside the frontiers
of Israel; He was now close to the end of his life and so far he had
preached the Gospel extensively but almost exclusively within the
Greco-Roman world, the spiritual domain of Zeus and his fellows. His
detour to Malta demonstrated that the Good News was also to be taken
beyond the Greco-Roman as well as the Hebrew world, even to such
areas as the Maltese Islands where the ancient culture and religion
of the Mother Goddess still flourished despite Roman conquest. The
Maltese are in fact described in the Acts as ‘barbaroi’, meaning that they
did not speak Greek or Latin. Their culture and religion was the same as
that of Calypso.
Thus, the connection between Homer’s portrait of Calypso as Queen
of Malta and Luke’s portrait of Paul as the Apostle of all Nations is the
following: The welcome that both Ulysses and Paul received in Malta
shows plainly the universality of the belief that hospitality to strangers
was a most basic duty of all human beings to all other human beings.
The Calypso story is perhaps the best foreshadowing in pagan literature
of the recognition of the universal dignity of all human beings that Paul
most explicitly proclaimed for the first time in human history (as the
agnostic philosopher Alain Badiou has emphasised in a recent book).
A particularly striking point common to both the episode in the Odyssey
and the episode in the Bible is that the frontiers crossed by the two
protagonists are cultural and religious, not political or legal. Actually one
theme which the present phenomenon that looms so large in the minds
of many Maltese today is precisely the changing significance of frontiers.
Instead of the Customs House as the typical building symbolising the
A Path Beyond Fear 33
“Frontier”, the detention camp now stands ambivalently in our people’s
mind. These places make it clear that frontiers are not just invisible and
abstract lines separating two worlds as though by a merely legal fiction.
They are concrete definitions of space, tangible places enabling control
to be exercised and compelling “aliens” to a phase in their lives of
waiting in grievious uncertainty.
The ambivalence of the meaning of these zones is due to the two
possible outcomes of the experience that the people confined within
them undergo. These outcomes could be either frustration, amounting
even to the exasperation of a Freudian death-wish; or the cradling of an
intercultural exchange that could be taken as a harbinger of a positive
turnabout in the ongoing process of globalization.
It is this paradoxical image of “the Frontier” that has emerged in the
minds of the younger generations particularly in our part of the world,
but also more generally throughout the world.
It is in sharp contrast with the “Frontier” image that took shape in the
minds of the older generations among us. That image was fashioned
mostly by the Western films that dominated our imaginations when
the cinema was still unrivalled in its power to capture the imagination.
The “frontier” was the imaginary line that the cowboys and pioneers in
America were constantly pushing westwards at the expense of the Red
Indians. The “others” beyond the frontier were by that very same fact
branded as “baddies”.
The global situation has radically changed. There are now no more
lands to conquer. It might seem to some that situations like Iraq or
Georgia are counter-examples. But, in fact, they are in part generally
perceived as anachronistic and in part as exhibiting the cultural or
civilisational form that the libido dominandi, to use Augustine’s idiom,
has taken as its post modern dress. It does not seem that the creation of
any mythical art-form comparable to the Western has yet been provided
34 Opening up
by any mass medium. Nevertheless, the sheer coming into existence
of global networks such as Internet are fostering the idea that frontiers
are made to be traversed with ever greater ease, and perhaps to be
suppressed completely in the not too distant future.
So, at present the topic of frontiers seems to be haunted by a double
danger. On the one hand, there is the illusion that the trend towards
globalization, even in its lopsided current form, has already made
frontiers unimportant, even if there is still no keeping in step between
world-wide commerce and world-wide governance. On the other
hand, there are situations in the world where the strengthening of
frontiers appears to be highly desirable. Tibet is a case in point. The
non-existence of legal frontiers in such cases constitutes a threat to
the survival of valuable cultural identities. Another case where again
the juridical establishment of frontiers would be a positive occurrence
at least for the time being is that between Israel and Palestine. The
multivalence of the possible meanings of frontiers is a function of the
different figures that the outsider can take.
There are of course many other cases throughout the world where
frontiers are the cause of international as well as intra-national
conflict such as Ireland or Kashmir and many areas in Africa, and
these questions are among the major cause of the massive refugee
movements occurring at present. The frontier disputes can also be
illuminatingly seen as related to the concept of what constitutes a
“stranger”, a “foreigner”, a “xenos”. Most of the millions of refugees are
being constrained to become outsiders in some part of the world or
other because their right to preserve a cultural identity, often significantly
marked by a religion, is not being respected or even recognised. It is
therefore necessary for us to acknowledge that legal frontiers may be
a positive necessity at the stage of development that the sense of our
identity as human beings has reached.
A Path Beyond Fear 35
Its full development would mean that on the one hand there was
between us all the solidarity that would flow from consciousness of
belonging to one species and on the other hand full recognition of
every group’s right to enjoy its chosen cultural identity in a pluralist
world. Thus the issue on which we are trying to focus our attention –
Xenophobia, Philoxenia – is not so much a matter of physical changes of
frontiers as of conceptual and functional changes. A proper conception
of what constitutes human identity should lead us to change our
concept of the function of a frontier from that of a divisive barrier to that
of a heritage-marker, preserver of an original cultural identity.
It is difficult to avoid the impression that since September 11th our
general frontier behaviour has taken a regressive turn. Previously,
an evolutionary change had been taking place in the direction that
certainly Christians are committed to, but also all those who subscribe
to believe in universal human dignity. The increasing technologisation of
frontier- crossing-control has led the more fearful among us to see in it a
foretaste of the realization of Michel Foucault’s nightmare of a universal
onslaught of plague. Biometric identity cards and total body radiological
examining devices at the frontiers are indicating that security worries
are becoming much more intense than respect for human dignity.
Experience has amply proved that it is impossible to prevent the criminal
occurrences that the sort of big brother surveillance of everybody are
meant to guard against by such means. Anything like a return to the
elementary traditions of hospitality can only be secured by eradicating
the extreme conditions that strain the resources of human beings and
drive them to violent reactions.
On the other hand, there are several developments occurring which
are enabling frontiers to change from being only devices of enclosure
or waiting places into becoming meeting places for cross-cultural as
well as interpersonal communication and exchanges. There is however
pressing need for more general support of all initiatives that promote the
use of frontiers that goes with a balanced concept of human identity.
36 Opening up
For instance, it is clear that the steps that have been taken to reduce
the divisiveness of frontiers in Europe need to be complemented by the
strengthening of media communication across the Continent in order to
strengthen dialogue and understanding.
Perhaps even more important would be efforts to establish effective
networks of communication across the Mediterranean. Europeans
should remember that, at least one of the great founders of the
European Union, De Gasperi, emphasized that the frontiers of Europe
were not geographical, but cultural. He defined as European anyone
who embraced the humanistic heritage that came out of the conjunction
of Greco-Roman civilization with the traditions coming from Abraham
and shared by Jews, Christians and Muslims in common. Each of the
cultural groups inhabiting this area has its own culture and, in a very
relative sense, members of one group have become relatively strangers
to each other; this only means that they need to recognise and respect
the differences between them, while ever intensifying their awareness
of what they share. When they have fully mastered the art of this
creative co-existence through reciprocal hospitality, they will be ready
to extrapolate the experience that they will have accomplished on a
continental and transcontinental scale, to the planetary.
Perhaps Malta’s greatest contribution to world affairs was the proposal
to preserve ocean space from the need of frontiers by establishing
for it in international law the status of common heritage of mankind
and therefore enabling it to continue to be a place where no-one is
a stranger, but everybody is at home. The idea has been applied by
the United Nations to the moon and to outer space, which are not yet
quite habitable by human beings of any culture. Our idea from the
start had been that the oceans could be a laboratory in which one
could experiment with systems of governance that it might then be
successively possible to implement also on land. After all, that is the way
that life went. It is the course that already Ulysses partly envisaged and
that after him St Paul fully conceived and proclaimed.
The contribution committed
lay people are called upon to make
in public life
A Lecture delivered by Fr. Fernando Franco SJ
at The Phoenicia Hotel, on the 24th April 2009
My dear friends in the Lord, if I may greet you in this very Jesuit way
here today, I must tell you that I am a very simple man, and the things
he has said about me in the in the introduction seem too grand to apply
to me. Let me also, at the very start, confess a limitation - I suffer from
a problem of identity. I was born in the Basque country, but given the
historical circumstances of that time, was not allowed to speak the
Basque language at school. I am Spanish by citizenship, but I lived
37 years in India and wanted to become an Indian; but the colour of
my skin betrays me there at any railway station or bus terminus. Then
suddenly one day, about 6 years ago, as I was getting on with my
ordinary duties in New Delhi, I received an email – we are in the era of
emails—which said “Would you consider the possibility of coming to
Rome and doing this job?” I almost had a heart attack! This was how I
was parachuted into Borgo S Spirito close to the Vatican City where I
now live, in the General Curia. You will understand from this that I have
distinct limitations, imbalances, peculiarities, call it what you will.
I begin my talk with an introduction where I clarify certain terms. I then
go on to discuss three main points. The first is that we live in a context or
world that has dramatically changed, and unless we understand a little
the main characteristics of this world, we may not be able to understand
what our commitment as lay persons should be. My second point is
about the new understanding of the relationship between religion and
public life today, not so much within the Church but outside the Church.
And finally, I make my third point tentatively and humbly, through a few
suggestions for what I call a methodology to shape public policy. I am
not an expert in public policy and while I am grateful for the invitation, I
38 Opening up
am aware of my lack of expertise. I come here as a visitor, not here to tell
you what is to be done, but as a companion, as a traveller, to help you
reflect on a number of issues confronting us today as Catholic Christians
and as human beings.
Introduction
Let me begin by clarifying in my introduction what I understand by both
terms, committed lay persons, and public policy.
What is meant by a committed lay person? I must confess that I was
touched by the word ‘committed’ placed before ‘lay persons’. We do not
say ‘committed Catholic priests’– we assume that priests are committed
– but apparently a lay person needs to be qualified by the adjective
‘committed’. I attempt a definition with two quick examples.
Three weeks ago I was in Quebec, French Canada, visiting a work of
the Jesuits run by a lay person called Henry. A convinced Catholic,
a practising Catholic. He ran a centre for youth, the kind that dresses
entirely in black with chains everywhere, tattoos down the arms, hair
all spiked up. It was the first time I had entered such a place and I was
somewhat scared, and I asked Henry who they were. His answer only
increased my apprehensions for it was obvious that many of the young
people coming to that open house, come well filled up, and not with
tea ! When I asked “Henry, what the hell, why are you doing this?” he
replied, “These young people, you see, they think that they are still in
adolescence. They think that life is permanent adolescence, even when
they are 26, so I try to be an adult who loves them. I love them, but I am
an adult, I am not an adolescent.” That was a committed lay person--
Henry.
Let me give you another example of a committed lay person-- Dinesh,
the director of ActionAid in India. Not so long ago, in 2002, terrible riots
(called ‘communal’ riots) broke out between the Hindu and Muslim
A Path Beyond Fear 39
communities in Ahmedabad where I lived. Dinesh is a Hindu working
with the NGO called Action Aid and a respected leader in civil society.
During those riots of 2002, for two whole days, 2000 Muslims were
butchered with the connivance of the police and the state government.
We Christians, a persecuted minority at the moment in India, did what
we could to help the Muslim community but it was very difficult for us to
function. This man, after two day of rioting, was the only Hindu in the city
of Ahmedabad, a city of 2 million people, to go to the radio station and
make a public appeal, saying, “I appeal to you, my Hindu brothers, to be
first and foremost human beings, then you can be Hindus.” I consider
Dinesh to be a committed lay person. I trust these two examples clarify
my understanding of the phrase committed lay person.
Next, public life. What do I mean by ‘public life’, by ‘being engaged in
public life’? By public life I mean the actions that I take individually, and
sometimes collectively, to affect the shaping of public policy directly. A
person engaged in political life is definitely engaged in public life. It is
also true that a very important section of civil society in the form of NGOs
tries to shape public policy, sometimes indirectly, sometimes directly.
People in public policy would be, for example, first, those who balance
public policy between maintaining border security and upholding the
dignity of asylum seekers. Another example would be those shaping
public policy to ensure equal and quality education for all. People who
shape a nation’s policy on these two issues seem to me to be engaged
in public life.
I
I turn now to the first of my reflections, our changed world. We live in a
new world, a world that has changed profoundly. I believe that many of
the problems or the issues that agitate you here in this country are part
of the broader canvas of what is happening in the world.
40 Opening up
First of all, whether a country is small or big, is located in the North or
South, is democratic or non-democratic, makes no difference to the
fact that today we are all interconnected. We cannot shape our future
independently of what is happening all over the world. Take China,
a communist country. The economic crisis begins in the US, in the
sub-prime financial markets, and the effect is felt thousands of miles
away Over the last two months, 20 million Chinese workers living near
the coast where industries are located have left the cities and gone
back to their villages. The reason is this: there is no more work. China
cannot say that, being a communist country, it is independent of what
happens elsewhere. What happens in Africa is going to affect the whole
of Europe. In fact, one of my presuppositions is that something very
serious is happening in Africa which is affecting us one way or the other.
Second, we live in a multicultural and pluri-religious world. You go to
Ireland now at the moment of the crisis and people are saying, “What’s
going to happen to the Poles who migrated to Ireland and have been
working here?” Their calculation is that, over the last five years, almost
half a million Poles have come to live and work in Ireland. You travel on
a Saturday in the metro, and whether it is London or Madrid, you will find
very few people who are ‘native inhabitants.’ I have had this experience
in many parts of the world. If you walk in Brazil today you can see
the whole Afro-descendant movement taking shape with tremendous
force before your eyes, and you realise that something has changed
drastically. You may close your eyes and say, “Ah, but you see, fifteen
years ago it was not like that ...”, but this is today, and things are
different.
Third, we live in a world in which inequalities have increased despite
tremendous economic growth. Inequalities have increased within
countries, most strikingly in the US where they were great even before
the crisis began, to say nothing of other countries. In Nigeria you pass
from the an extremely luxurious and rich lifestyle in the middle of Lagos
to the most wretched and miserable poverty some distance away.
A Path Beyond Fear 41
The process of growth that has been accompanied in our societies
by increasing inequality, has been made worse by the financial and
economic crisis.
Fourthly, we live in a world obsessed with identity-- cultural in some
cases, religious in others. You will find young people today on the
outskirts of Guatemala, or San Francisco, or anywhere in Europe for that
matter, who belong to groups which go in for tattoos. They are members
of street groups, of a ‘mara’ or ‘pandilla’ as they say in Latin America.
They live out this identity having nothing else to live by or for; and this
leads to a lot of violence.
A more serious aspect of our contemporary world and our obsession
with identity is the factor of religious fundamentalism. I lived for very
many years in a country that has practised tolerance, the country
that produced and revered Mahatma Gandhi, the man of peace. That
country today is being polarised, as Hindu fundamentalists try to re-write
history using religion for political purposes. Muslims and Christians,
both religious minorities, are being persecuted. Six months ago I visited
the state of Orissa where I saw very poor Christians killed mercilessly
simply because they were Christians. Or take Buddhism in Sri Lanka.
The Buddha proclaimed compassion and peace. The plight of Tamil
civilians who have been butchered in the last few months is terrible.
I hold no brief for the Tamil rebel group LTTE but I maintain that the
Buddhist movement and the use of religion for political purposes has
made the political history of the last 15 years in Sri Lanka miserable and
unacceptable.
Again, and I say this with humility and respect, I cannot pass over this
issue without mentioning some forms of Christian fundamentalism which
have invoked the law of God to invade a country. Biblical statements
have been used for terrible purposes.
42 Opening up
Racism is another form of fundamentalism everywhere on the increase.
I come here now from Rome where the newspapers three days ago
carried the story of a young boy who plays calcio, football for Juventus
(though I am not quite sure of this last fact). He comes from Mali, his
parents came from Africa, he was born in Italy, he is an Italian, he has an
Italian passport. The other day a section of the crowd started shouting
at him, “You are not Italian, you are not Italian, you are a black.” The
football federation came later and closed the Juventus stadium for a
season. This is what the texture of human life is made of today.
I turn to the next characteristic. We live in a fragmented world, a world
that is post-modern both conceptually and socially. Nobody believes in
Utopias any more; we believe that the truth is partial. Belief in institutions
has gone. Long term commitments? A thing of the past. We live for the
short term, for today; about tomorrow we can affirm nothing. This affects
many, families are broken, fragmented. This is the fearful and uncertain
world in which we live.
The last characteristic seems to me very important because it underlies
much of what I have mentioned. Fear--we live in a world in which fear
and anxiety are fabricated and transmitted for political gain. I offer
an example from outside Europe and leave it to you to make the
connections. For the last three years the constant refrain in India is
that Christians are a threat; they come with a religion that has always
been Western; they will destroy – what? – the culture of this country,
which is Hindu. Fear. The Muslims are seen as having destroyed this
country in the past. Again, fear. Analyse the facts, some of the facts. The
percentage of Christians (not only Catholic) in India was 2.3% in 1948
after Independence. The 2000 census shows it to be 1.96. That shows
a clear decrease. 1.9% in a population of 1000 million people, and the
Christians constitute a threat to the fabric of the country! If you sit quietly
and look at the facts figures, you will ask, “How can this lie be sold?” But
it is; it is sold and disseminated efficiently. India is a melting pot of many
cultures, not only Hindu culture. In fact, invasion from outside was the
A Path Beyond Fear 43
origin of Hindu culture. The indigenous people people living there were
pushed out as the invaders marched in. What do we mean by original/
not original? And yet, educated persons say, “You people come here to
convert, you come here to change the demography, you come here to
destroy Hinduism.”
I have outlined six characteristics of the world in which we live and the
last one, the systematic policy of distributing fear seems to me to be
crucial. I have given only one example from India but it is happening all
over the world.
II
Turning now to religion and public life I think there has been a change,
a very interesting change in the way one understands the relationship
between the two. I do not discuss here Catholic social teaching which,
while accepting difference, has held that the values of a Christian person
must influence the shaping of public policy. I shall speak instead briefly
about what I call the extreme secularist position. How would I define the
exreme secularist position? Very simply, it is the belief that religion and
faith have to be driven out from the public realm and left secluded within
the private and individual space. Religion is a private affair. Let bishops,
lay people, speak about religion within their own communities. This is
obviously a strong reaction to a history in which the Church invaded
the public sphere, that is, the Church invaded the State. Today certain
schools of thought in some countries want a religious ideology to invade
the area of the State. I think the Church has quite clearly rejected this
position, even if it took three hundred years to understand this.
What is happening today? Very briefly, here are three examples.
Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of England, a recent convert to
Catholicism, has launched a new foundation--Faith and Globalisation.
He proposes openly that faith and religion have a role to play today
44 Opening up
in shaping public policy. And he makes five propositions which I think
may be interesting for us. He says first of all, we must not think that
having faith makes us abnormal or weird. Second, the fact that you are a
person of faith engaging in in public life does not imply that your religion
makes you act without freedom and without reason; having faith does
not mean that you respond automatically to some force pushing you
from behind to act in a particular way. That is not the meaning of ‘having
faith.’ Third, to have faith does not mean that you wish to impose your
faith on others. Fourth, being a person of faith engaged in public life
does not give you any right to assume that you are better than others.
And finally, the fact that you have faith should not make you co-opt God
to legitimise your own political agenda. If these five points are kept in
mind, then faith, says Tony Blair, is absolutely essential in today’s world.
My second example is also drawn from a person who converted to
Catholicism, the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon. Among the
many thorny and difficult problems he confronts is climate change. About
three months ago I received an invitation asking the Jesuits (along with
other religous leaders including the Vatican) to consider the possibility of
engaging in a dialogue with the UN. Before the crucial meeting towards
the end of this year in Copenhagen to decide the final policy, the UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon wants to be familiar with the stands taken
on climate change by religions. He wants faith-based organisations to
engage in this process because he knows that merely tampering with,
and tweaking fiscal procedures and laws cannot change the relationship
of human beings to the Earth. Here religion and faith have a role to play.
He wants us to take a position and make a commitment so that when the
leaders of all nations gather together at Copenhagen, religious leaders
can say, “You are not dealing with a problem that concerns only you, it
concerns all of us, and through our religious values, we strongly commit
ourselves to preserve our relationship with the Earth. It is not for us to tell
you what the optimal percentage of carbon dioxide for trade with each
other should be; those are things that you have to decide, but we want
to tell you, as religious leaders, that we believe we need to change our
relationship with the Earth.”
A Path Beyond Fear 45
Finally, let us recognize the change that has come about in the role of
religion in public life. Faith and religion today can shape public life in a
far more positive and open way provided that certain perfectly ordinary
and acceptable conditions are met..
III
I come now to a more practical issue. What is the methodology we
should adopt to shape public policy? The ideas I offer here are based on
what a number of people engaged in defining social ethics at a global
level are saying. The methodology to achieve success needs to combine
three ways of acting: the prophetic, the dialogical and the pragmatic. Let
me take each of these in brief.
I start with the prophetic way. We Catholics who are religious people
need to speak and to utter the truth. And the simple truth for us is this:
love your enemies, love those who suffer, and love the dignity of every
human being, no matter what the situation might be. Here is an example
of this imperative followed under terrifying circumstances: It was the year
1944 during the Second World War when an obscure moral theologian
in the US, he happened to be a Jesuit, Fr John C Ford, wrote an article
called The Morality of Obliteration Bombing by which he meant dropping
the Atom Bomb. His strongly worded article said in no uncertain
terms that obliteration bombing is an immoral act on the rights of the
innocent. It includes a direct intent to do them injury and is not morally
acceptable. The following year, 1945, the US government dropped two
atomic bombs, one on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki. If you read the
biography of Truman you will see how he justifies this act, but the point
I want to make is that that man thought he had the duty to say publicly
what, according to him, was a call of conscience. Using atom bombs,
obliteration bombing, is immoral. A long time later, 30 years later, the
Second Vatican Council said that any act of war “aimed indiscriminately
at the destruction of entire cities of extensive areas along with their
population, is a crime against God and man himself”. I hope fervently
46 Opening up A Path Beyond Fear 47

that this element does not die from among us. If it does, then what sense The prophetic voice, the dialogical voice, and the pragmatic voice. A
is there in saying that we believe in certain principles? group that can handle these elements together is a very powerful group.
I believe that lay people have been called to play this role very forcefully.
In addition to the prophetic a successful methodology needs to take The way may be complex, the path tortuous, but we can act and we can
in the second element, the dialogical. This means that you need to act together. I hope that God gives us the grace to realise that we are
sit down and bring to the table everybody who has a stake in what is interconnected and that we have to act together with a plan, allowing the
happening: not only those who think like you but those who do not think prophetic, allowing the dialogue, and allowing the pragmatic.
like you; you need to bring them all. You have to go beyond your own
ideology, maybe your own prophetic stance. At the same time that you Thank you very much and God bless all of you.
articulate your prophetic conviction, you have to listen to others. Let me
give an example of how listening helps. Eight years ago the International
Labour Office - the ILO - wrote a report on globalisation in labour with
the collaboration of 25 people. Present were the right, the left, trade
unions, the private sector; the West, East, North, and South. It is one of
the most beautiful reports on both the opportunities and tremendous
dangers of globalisation. Dialogue is both possible and necessary, and
not only in the area of ecology, but on all contested issues. We need
to talk, to open the dialogue process in the issues of land, education,
health, migration.

Finally, the pragmatic: Engaging in public policy calls not for a single
messiah; it is a matter of a group. We cannot tackle this individually and
alone. What do I mean by ‘pragmatic’? I mean continuously asking,
“Is it feasible now? Is this way of writing and saying feasible here?” It
is a matter of understanding that not all aspects of my stand will come
through, of being ready for a gradual approach, step by step. It is a
matter of not just the short term but the long term as well. We must
constantly ask “Are you assessing the strands that you have in this
dialogue, are you assessing the difficulties ahead of you? Are you using
the media in a convincing way to get your idea across, or do you think
heated and passionate talking alone will ensure the common good for all
in the world in which we live today?”
Epilogue
Private snapshots on multiple identities:
Encountering the Other at home and abroad
Reflecto by Mr. Mario Cardona

Winter of 1999. It’s 7.30am. As we trickle out of the Nettuno-Rome train,

thunder and lightning usher us into the overcrowded Roma Termini
railway station. The university is just around the corner in Via del Castro
Pretorio, but there’s no sign of the rain abating. I chastise myself for
never carrying an umbrella in my back-pack. But as soon as I reach
the huge arcades that lead into Piazza dei Mille, Africans, Chinese and
Indians come to my rescue. I am spoilt for choice. All colours and sizes,
all for the same price. I fetch five thousand Italian lire from my pocket,
make an Indian man happy, open the umbrella and rush off to university.

Mid-December 1999. Before going to Malta for the Christmas holidays,

I need to buy some gifts to take home with me. The Crai supermarket
is in the middle of a small industrial estate, down a semi-deserted road
round Lavinio railway station across the street from my apartment. Living
on a meagre scholarship, it’s the best bet. It’s getting late. Past the
railway station I struggle to avoid the barely visible potholes along the
dark, narrow, straight street. I get done with my shopping, pay and grab
a tightly packed large bag in each hand. I try to hurry on my way home
along the pitch black road. Mid-way, I see a car approaching from the
darkness of a narrow side street. I rest my heavy shopping bags on the
footpath. My finger tips are almost blue and I can’t stand the pain. I wait
for the oncoming car to get into the main road before I can cross the
side street and continue on my way home. But I am startled when the
driver of the car stops right in front of me, winds down the window pane
and asks me bluntly, “Where are you coming from?” I can barely make
out his face. I do not reply. He asks again, “Where are you from?” This
time, as if somebody has pushed a play button in my brain, I say, “I’m
50 Opening up
from Malta.” He probes further. “Are you working here in Rome?” Again,
as if compelled, I reply, “No, I’m on an Italian government scholarship
and I’m studying at one of the universities in Rome.” And again, “Where
do you live?” At this point I somehow come to my senses. My half-numb
finger tips grope for the handles of the shopping baskets on either side,
I fix my eyes on the dimly lit railway station ahead of me, pass right in
front of the anonymous car and plod on. I reach the station gasping for
breath. There’s no sign of the anonymous driver. I cross the street from
the station to the housing estate, hurry breathlessly to my block on Via
del Sagittario, and take the lift up to my small apartment. Closing the
door behind me, I switch on the lights and rest the dangling baskets
on the floor. As I lean against the closed door, anger gathers within
me. Why the hell did I reply to any of those stupid questions? My friend
Paolo has repeatedly told me that because of my relatively dark skin,
in Rome I might pass as a North African, were it not for my Italian name
and Spanish surname! But then, what the hell! Even Tunisians have the
right to walk along the dark road past the railway station to do their late
night shopping.
Some time in the year 2000. My friend, Paolo, lives just across the
road in a small block exactly similar to mine. He is a middle-aged man
from Naples who had come to settle here in Lavinio hoping to find work
in Rome. It’s Saturday, 10 o’clock in the morning. As has happened
every Saturday for the past year or so, I’m expecting him to phone
me up in order to go shopping at the fishmonger on the road from
Lavinio to Nettuno. Five past ten. The mobile phone rings. It’s Paolo. I
run downstairs and get into his Fiat Punto. Back in his flat, loaded with
fresh fish, clams, and spaghetti, we start preparing lunch for four. I set
the table while Paolo puts the fish in the oven, settles the fresh clams
in a bowl with salted water and gets started with his tomato sauce. As
he goes on with his cooking he’s explaining his every move to me. I
listen on attentively. By quarter to two in the afternoon lunch is ready.
Paolo phones Rosa and Maria, who live in his block two stories above.
They are two sisters from Potenza, in southern Italy, and are studying
A Path Beyond Fear 51
architecture in Rome. At two sharp, the group of Southerners are
digging into their plates. The spaghetti with the clams and tomato sauce
are excellent. The fish is as good. We wash it down with some Frascati
wine while Paolo animates the lunch with his jokes and sarcastic
comments. We have a piece of Pastiera Napoletana for dessert. We
help Paolo wash the dishes and put the dining room in order. Then our
generous host goes back to his small kitchen and comes back with four
small chilled drinking glasses, directly from the freezer. He fills each
one to the brim with lemon liquor. We toast each other and take it down
at one go. Finally Paolo puts the small coffee-maker on the burner. A
strong smell of espresso fills the air. I get four small coffee cups from
the kitchen. Paolo follows with the coffee maker. We sip the coffee with
loads of sugar in it. We say goodbye to each other. Rosa and Maria walk
up the stairs to their apartment. I pretend I’m in a hurry to go back to my
books and my unfinished dissertation. As I always do before leaving, I
close the grey garbage bag in the kitchen and take it down with me to
the wheelie bin at the corner of Via del Sagittario. Paolo’s strong coffee
has not managed to help me overcome the dazzling effects of the
Frascati and the strong lemon liquor. Dangling from side to side I drag
my feet towards my block, take the lift to my apartment and drop down
on the empty double bed.
Late June 2000. On the train from Lavinio to the centre of Rome I hardly
ever meet anyone I know, except for Paolo who sometimes works in
Rome in one of his banks’ branches in the city. When this happens, we
usually talk a lot during the hour long trip to the city centre. Otherwise,
I usually spent my journeys to and from Rome reading text books and
study notes. In two days’ time my two year stay in Rome will draw to an
end and I will head South again to the island of Malta. In fact, today I’m
going to the faculty office at Via del Castro Pretorio to hand in copies
of my dissertation. The train from Nettuno enters Lavinio station. I look
for an empty seat on the second car which I usually board, crowded
and noisy as usual, and take out a copy of Dickens’ Pickwick Papers
from my back pack. I try to suppress the giggles as I go through Mr
52 Opening up
Pickwick’s misfortunes. As my eyes drift away from the pages and settle
on the dark brown railing above the windows, I am stunned. Maltese sei
una merda.1 It was written in white with correcting fluid. I look around
me to see if anyone has noticed my reaction. I close the book. My
fingers leave humid stains on the pages. I reach Rome, walk briskly
to Via del Castro Pretorio, leave the three copies of my dissertation at
the faculty office, don’t even bother to say goodbye to the young man
at the reception desk, walk back to Roma Termini, and board the now
deserted second car of the train returning to Nettuno. I see that the
dreaded message is still there, glaringly white over the dark brown hand
rail. I walk on to the fourth car through the connecting passageways.
Back in Lavinio I pack my few belongings. My phone rings. It’s Paolo.
“Next Monday I will drive you to Fiumicino Airport so that you won’t have
to wake up too early.” “That’s great.” He somehow senses that I’m in low
spirits and tries to brighten me up. “You know what? When you’re gone,
the grey garbage bag in my kitchen and the wheelie bin at the corner
will keep reminding me of you!”
June 2007. I am attending a seminar at a hotel in Sliema this morning.
I’m not very familiar with this part of the island. I leave home early in the
morning and reach Sliema at about 8 o’clock. I spot a parking lot, get in
it, switch off the car and go in search of the hotel. It is surprisingly very
near to the car, so I have about an hour in hand. I decide to take a stroll
along the back streets of Sliema. It’s so strange that I’ve never been here
in my life, Malta being such a small island. I walk uphill and turn into a
straight road. One side of the road is lined with parked cars. The other
side of the road is full of fine white dust. A long trench running along
the whole length of the road had recently been filled in with concrete
awaiting to be patched up with tarmac. The white silent street under an
already hot sun, is deserted. Only one empty shop in the corner. The
only sound to be heard is that of a broom hitting the hot tarmac. A tall
black young man is slowly sweeping the street, gathering the white dust
1. Maltese, you are load of shit.
A Path Beyond Fear 53
in small mounds here and there. As I walk past him I look at him from
the corner of my eyes. As he warily takes his eyes off the ground, his
gaze meets mine. Small red veins run through his yellow, silent eyes.
Small drops of sweat shine off his bare hands and shoulders. My feet
feel like wanting to stop by... My lips look like they want to utter inaudible
words... But nothing seems to push the activation button in my mind. My
feet plod on.
Pondering upon the snapshots: Encountering the Other in our midst,
opening up to possible new worlds.
The Other, is quite elusive, and very often has transient multiple
identities, depending on the setting, the time and the place. Hailing from
Malta I may be a Southerner in the eyes of a Neapolitan or of two girls
from Potenza. They in their turn are considered as Southerners by their
Roman neighbors in the housing estate of Lavinio. I myself would be
considered as a Northerner the by Sub-saharian boat people reaching
our shores. But in reality, we are all humans in search of human
fulfilment. Paulo Freire argues that “In the dialogical theory of action,
Subjects meet in cooperation in order to transform the world.” The Other
is thus always a Subject, never a passive object at the receiving end of
my unilateral action. Furthermore, “At the point of encounter there are
neither utter ignoramuses nor perfect sages; there are only men who are
attempting, together, to learn more than they now know.”2
On a higher level Emanuel Levinas argues that the face of the Other
has something of the Eternal in it. The face of the Other, unknown
and stranger to me, is turned towards eternity, and ultimately towards
God. It poses upon me the imperative: do not kill me. It hands me
with an a priori call for justice. The gaze of the Other upon me places
me in a position of responsibility towards him. Extrapolating from
Kierkegaard’s vision of the self as potentially positioning himself before
2. Freire, P., (1990). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin Books. pp. 135, 63.
54 Opening up A Path Beyond Fear 55

God, who, in turn, becomes his mirror image projected into infinity, the The time is ripe to act with courage. The call to “love one another
self only becomes engaged in the eternal process of becoming when he as I have loved you” has never been so urgent. The call is for us to
opens himself up to the presence of the Other in his life. Living up to his “communicate with everyone, getting to know new people and new
responsibility towards the Other, the self will constitute itself as an ethical problems, laugh at the sacred frontiers of the fatherlands.”5 In short,
being, shedding its self-suffocating egocentricity while committing itself to move beyond our fears and open up to new possibilities for our
to the well-being of the Other. Simply put, I become an authentic self well humanization.
placed on the path toward self-fulfilment, with my face upon God, the
eternally loving, my mirror image projected into eternity, when I concretely
commit myself to ensure that the Other has the same right. Not only, but
the Other’s right, in the thought of Levinas, has a precedence of any other
right I may have, and my commitment to the self-fulfilment of the Other
becomes a precondition for my own self-fulfilment. How does this translate
itself into everyday life? Don Milani writes:
The right goal is to give oneself to others. And in this century, how
can you love if not through politics, the trade union, and the school?
We are sovereign. It’s no more the time for begging, but for making
choices. Against class-conscious people like you, against hunger,
illiteracy, racism, colonial wars.3

The encounter with the Other thus is not a call for what Freire calls “an
armchair revolution”, but a positive disturbance that awakens us to
answer the call of our Maker for human fulfilment, rolling up our sleeves
and striving for social justice with true generosity which, according to
Freire, consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish
false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the ‘rejects
of life’, to extend their trembling hands. Real generosity lies in striving
so that those hands – whether of individuals or entire peoples – need
be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they
become human hands which work and, by working transform the world.4

3. Milani, L., (1996). Lettera a una professoressa. Firenze: Libreria Editrice Fiorentina. p.94. “Il fine
giusto è dedicarsi al prossimo. E in questo secolo come vuole amare se non con la politica o col
sindacato o con la scuola? Siamo sovrani. Non è più il tempo delle elemosine, ma delle scelte.
Contro i classisti che siete voi, contro la fame, l’analfabetismo, il razzismo, le guerre coloniali.” 5. Milani, 1996, p 22. “... comunicare con tutti, conoscere uomini e problemi nuovi, ridere dei sacri
4. Freire, P., (1990). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin Books. p.21-22 confini delle patrie.”
A Path Beyond Fear 57

The Main Contributors of this book

Renato Raffaele Martino is an Italian Cardinal

Deacon and President Emeritus of the
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Cardinal Martino was born in Salerno (Italy) on

23 November 1932. He was ordained a priest
on 27 June 1957 and entered the Diplomatic
Service of the Holy See on 1 July 1962. He
worked in the nunciature in Nicaragua,the
Philippines, Lebanon, and Brazil, before being
appointed Pro-Nuncio in Thailand and Apostolic
Delegate in Laos, Malaysia and Singapore on
He was consecrated as Archbishop of the titular
see of Segerme in 1980 in Rome. Pope John
Paul II appointed him Permanent Observer of
the Holy See to the United Nations in New York
and President of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace in 2002. He became a member of the
College of Cardinals in 2003. Martino also served
as President of the Pontifical Council for the
Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants.
58 Opening up A Path Beyond Fear 59

Professor Andrea Riccardi is the Founder of Fr Fernando Franco SJ is the Secretary for
the Community of Sant’Egidio Social Justice at the Jesuit Curia in Rome

The Community of Saint Egidio was born in 1968
in Rome and is made up of more than 70,000
persons in more than 70 countries actively
involved, above all, in evangelization and in the
service to one’s neighbour, especially the most
needy. The different groups, spread all over the
world, are united by the same spirituality: prayer,
spreading of the Gospel, solidarity with the
poor, ecumenism and interreligious dialogue,
commitment for peace and justice.
Fr. Fernando Franco was born in San Sebastian,
Spain, joined the Jesuits and in 1965 went
to India. He taught Economics at St Xavier´s
College. He later joined the NGO, ‘Behavioural
Science Centre’, Ahmedabad. Together with
other colleagues of the same Centre he worked
extensively in devising and conducting training
programmes for Dalit and Tribal community
organisers. He has written extensively on the
socio-economic and cultural problems of these
two communities. At present, he is the Secretary
for Social Justice at the Jesuit Curia at Rome.

Dr Edward Fenech Adami: President Emeritus

of the Republic of Malta

Dr. Edward Fenech Adami was Prime Minister

of Malta between 1987 and 1996. Between 1996
and 1998 Fenech Adami served as Leader of the
Opposition until his Party was returned to office
in September 1998. He is the longest serving
Prime Minister since Independence in 1964.
Following his resignation as Prime Minister,
Adami became President of Malta on 4 April
2004. He served a five-year term, leaving office
on 4 April 2009.