he “faith resources” can help us “in hope” and to combat “fear knocks at our door.” Fr. Gabriele Ferrari, Xaverian Missionary, ex-Superior General of the Congregation, has written an article in the latest edition of
Xaverian Missionaries of Italy regarding terrorism and war, stating that “faith is the most effective resource we have available against fear. It is not little, as it contains elements which help us to construct a reply for these fearful times.”
Terrorism is hatred turned into deadly action. We have to reject this and every violence. Violence breeds violence. Terrorism isn’t won by weapons, but by solving the problems that provoke it, taking back that truth found in the Gospel and in the best religious traditions in the world.
The rise of terrorism “can be among other things, an occasion to make an examination of conscience regarding ourselves and our society. Why terrorism? This certainly isn’t the way to remedy the accumulated lack of justice that has caused so much hatred in the world.”
“Terrorism is hatred turned into deadly action. We have to reject this and every violence. Violence breeds violence. Terrorism isn’t won by weapons, but by solving the problems that provoke it, taking back that truth found in the Gospel and in the best religious traditions in the world.” The policy for a “New World” can come from the Gospel.
Fr. Ferrari says “in the Gospel, Christians find fundamental truths that are becoming the policies for the New World. The first being the value of man. Man is the image of God. All mankind is this image and we cannot allow some to be and others not to be. God made us equal in dignity, rights, and responsibilities.”
The second truth “is found in the Sermon on the Mount and it is this: the search for the one justice without forgiveness creates a spiral of dangerous and unstoppable vengeance, which has no hope. ‘No Future Without Forgiveness’ is the title of Desmond Tutu’s book. Nothing can be truer. The Pope also remembered this in his Message for the World Day of Peace 2002: There is no Peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness.”
(From VID)