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(Vatican Radio)  The Holy See has hailed a UN plan of action for religious leaders to prevent incitement to violence that could lead to atrocity crimes, saying they also foster peaceful, inclusive societies.

Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said the Holy See “is not able to support every one of the 177 targets” of the plan but that it does represent “a major, practical step” toward a better society and culture.

He said the vocation of religious leaders and communities “is to carry out and inspire actions aimed at helping the building of societies based on respect for life and human dignity, charity, fraternity, which goes far beyond tolerance, and solidarity.”

Despite the focus on religious leaders, Archbishop Auza pointed out that the “primary responsibility” of protecting “the innocent from savage acts” lies with national governments.

But he said that the plan’s existence is “a humble recognition by the international community that those who are being incited by pseudo-religious motivations for violence aren’t going to be effectively persuaded out of it by secular argumentation from so-called infidels or by economic materialism.”

Religious leaders, in addition to helping to prevent violence, Archbishop Auza concluded, primarily foster “incitement to virtue and thereby creating the type of peaceful and inclusive societies in which atrocity crimes are ethically unacceptable, indeed, unimaginable.”

Please find below the full address:

Intervention of Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations

Launch of the Plan of Action for Religious Leaders and Actors to Prevent Incitement to Violence that Could Lead to Atrocity Crimes

United Nations, New York, 14 July 2017

Excellencies, Distinguished Fellow Panelists,

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very pleased to be present at the launch of this Plan of Action, which is meant to help “better understand, articulate and encourage the potential of religious leaders to prevent incitement and the violence that it can lead to, and to integrate the work of religious leaders within broader efforts to prevent atrocity crimes” (p. 3).

The fruit of three years of hard work, the Plan is intended primarily for religious leaders and workers, but also helpfully includes detailed recommendations for States and state institutions, civil society organizations, and the media, conscious that preventing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity requires the contributions and collaboration of each of us and all our communities and institutions.

While the Holy See is not able to support every one of the 177 targets flowing from the Plan’s nine groups of thematic recommendations and 35 objectives, the plan as a whole represents a major, practical step forward in fostering a culture and society consistent with what the Outcome Document of the 2005 World Summit called the Responsibility to Protect.

I would like to share three brief reactions.

First, I wish to underline the emphasis in the Plan that “States have the primary responsibility to protect populations from atrocity crimes, as well as their incitement.” This is in line with Articles 138 and 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome, which states the responsibility to protect falls primarily, but not exclusively, on national authorities. Then the international community is called upon, “as appropriate, [to] encourage and help States to exercise this responsibility.” This encouragement and help can take many forms, among which I would like to recall the duty to refrain from inciting tension and conflict in third States that could constitute the prelude, the scene or still worse, the breeding ground for committing the hateful crimes in question.

There has been some focus recently on the role of religious leaders in preventing atrocity crimes — and this is good, because religious leaders have much to contribute — but, at the end of the day, religious leaders and organizations obviously do not have the resources by themselves to stop atrocities. While they can influence behavior and mentalities, they do not possess the resources and instruments of stopping mass atrocities that only States possess, like law enforcement agencies and armed forces. While I heartily welcome the spotlight on the helpful role of religious leaders, it is important to maintain the crucial focus on the primary responsibility of national governments and the international community to act to protect the innocent from savage acts.

My second point is that, as the Plan helpfully emphasizes, “religious leaders and actors can” — and I would add, do — “play a particularly influential role” in preventing atrocities, “because they have the potential to influence the behavior of those who follow them and share their beliefs.”

Negatively, this influence has been abused by those religious leaders who have misused their authority and influence to spur or justify atrocities. Positively, it has been seen in the many more religious leaders who have condemned such abuses, stressing that violence against others in the name of God is a great blasphemy against the name of God and the greatest disservice to religion itself.

Religious leaders and communities are called to uphold the Responsibility to Protect by engaging in interreligious dialogue and promoting peace in their communities. Their vocation is to carry out and inspire actions aimed at helping the building of societies based on respect for life and human dignity, charity, fraternity, which goes far beyond tolerance, and solidarity.

The Plan offers religious leaders many helpful good and best practices in order to inoculate those who come to their houses of worship from the half-truths that ideologues can use to incite them to hating rather than loving, and attacking rather than serving, their neighbor. The very existence of a Plan directed toward religious leaders is also a humble recognition by the international community that those who are being incited by pseudo-religious motivations for violence aren’t going to be effectively persuaded out of it by secular argumentation from so-called infidels or by economic materialism. They need, rather, valid religious arguments that show that extremists’ violence-inducing exegesis is unfaithful to the text and to the God they’re claiming to serve; they need persuasive counterarguments that plant the seeds of peace and eradicate the weeds of violence.

The phenomenon of religiously motivated violence is a particular challenge with regard to the defense and protection of Freedom of Religion or Belief. Understanding the motivations that lie at the root of terrorism and violence is complex and requires careful reflection and analysis, all the more so when there is a religious dimension to it. Religious leaders are uniquely placed to offer such reflection. Pope Francis has helped to open up spaces for this reflection to occur so that religious leaders are able to contribute to the sensitive debate about religiously motivated terrorism.

Acknowledging explicitly the religious dimension of some expressions of violent extremism is fraught with danger, and we can understand the reluctance of governments and international bodies to do so. Thus, the most important contribution of religious leaders to this debate is to help people understand that acknowledging the religious dimension of some violent extremism, or more precisely the manipulation of religion for violent ends, does not mean equating religion, or a particular religion, or an entire religious community, with violence.

In his April 28 address to the participants of the International Peace Conference in Cairo, Pope Francis emphasized that “religion is not a problem but a part of the solution.” In order to “counter effectively the barbarity of those who foment hatred and violence,” he said, “we need to accompany young people, helping them on the path to maturity and teaching them to respond to the incendiary logic of evil by patiently working for the growth of goodness, … daily turn[ing] the polluted air of hatred into the oxygen of fraternity.”

For religious leaders to carry out this service, he said, it’s essential that religion not “be relegated to the private sphere, as if it were not an essential dimension of the human person and society,” because such secularizing tendencies can add fuel to the fires being stoked by those who want to instrumentalize religious motivations toward violent ends. Confining religion only to the intimate sphere of the person risks the development of a culture of intolerance, which is one reason why national authorities must recognize and ensure religious freedom as an inalienable fundamental human right.

The public good that comes from religion needs to be appreciated and promoted so that religious leaders can better, Pope Francis continued in Cairo, “unmask the violence that masquerades as purported sanctity, … denounce violations of human dignity and human rights, … expose attempts to justify every form of hatred in the name of religion, and … condemn these attempts as idolatrous caricatures of God.” 

My third and last point involves the importance of religious leaders’ participation in meaningful interreligious dialogue, which is the focus of the fifth thematic recommendation.

This is something that Pope Francis has been stressing by both word and action since his 2013 election. “Interreligious dialogue,” he wrote in the exhortation that charts the path of his pontificate, “is a necessary condition for peace in the world.” He elaborated on that conviction this January in his annual address to the members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. He described how interreligious dialogue, beyond the many direct fruits that come from it for believers, provides the peoples of the world a paradigm to discuss their differences, grow in mutual appreciation of others’ perspectives, and journey together toward peace and other common goals.

Religiously motivated men and women, moved as they are by the call of God to reverence the other’s God-given dignity and love their neighbor, he said, have a special responsibility to show everyone how to converse about the deepest and most important matters and to work respectfully through what may divide. Moreover, they show adherents how to fight injustice and root out the personal and social causes of discord that can lead to war, to renounce violence and vengeance in vindicating one’s rights, to transcend selfishness and the hatred that calcifies through lack of forgiveness, and to carry out the works of mercy that build a culture of peace.

That’s why the role and work of religious leaders and believers in general, and interreligious dialogue in particular, are crucial not just in preventing incitement to violence among susceptible coreligionists, but in fostering incitement to virtue and thereby creating the type of peaceful and inclusive societies in which atrocity crimes are ethically unacceptable, indeed, unimaginable.

Thank you for your kind attention.

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The Archbishop of Lilongwe in Malawi, His Grace Tarsizio Ziyaye is marking the 25th anniversary of his episcopal ordination on Saturday 15 July. The 68-year old former Chairman of the regional bishops’ conference AMECEA was first ordained a bishop for the Diocese Dedza a quarter of a century ago. From there, he went on to serve as bishop of the then Diocese of Lilongwe and then as Archbishop of Blantyre. He was later appointed Archbishop of  Lilongwe after it was raised to the rank of an archdiocese.

“Of course, there have been moments of joy, moments of celebration and also sad moments, including moments of heart breaking experiences but God is always good. He has kept me relatively in good health,” Archbishop Ziyaye told Prince Henderson, the Communications Officer of the bishops’ conference of Malawi in an interview ahead of the jubilee celebration. Please find the detail below:

By Prince Henderson-ECM Communications Officer

The Archbishop of Lilongwe Most Rev. Tarsizio Ziyaye is expected to celebrates his 25 years of Episcopate on 15th July,2017 at Maula Cathedral in Lilongwe.

In an exclusive interview with Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) Communications Commission ahead of the celebration, Archbishop Ziyaye  described his journey which started in 1992 in Dedza Diocese as an Auxiliary Bishop as a moment of grace.

 “My journey as a Bishop has been a moment of grace in the sense that even now I can’t believe that I have reached this far. God has given me a golden opportunity,” said Archbishop Ziyaye. From Dedza, Archbishop Ziyaye went to serve as Bishop for the Lilongwe Diocese, before he went to Blantyre Archdiocese and later back to Lilongwe Archdiocese.

Archbishop Ziyaye said, despite many challenges that he has encountered as a shepherd, God has given him a golden opportunity to have the general view and an idea of the Catholic Church in Malawi adding that his strength emanates from his Motto which is taken from Jon 8:29 and gets a lot of inspirations from psalm 123.

 “Of course, there have been moments of joy, moments of celebration and also sad moments, including moments of heart breaking experiences but God is always good. He has kept me relatively in good health.” He said

Archbishop Ziyaye who is now 68 has in his Episcopate held various positions ranging from being Chairman of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) for ten years, Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA), Public Affairs Committee (PAC), Christian Service Committee, Chancellor for Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA) and Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA). He was also once Chairman for the mediation talks of political parties in Malawi.

 “For me there are not necessarily achievements but I consider this as a golden opportunity that God gave me to serve and have interaction with people of great profile. I feel humbled,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chairman for the National Laity Council, Dr. Ernest Misomali said the occasion is crucial and as the lay faithful, they are thankful to God for the gift of Archbishop Ziyaye.

Dr. Misomali described Archbishop Ziyaye as a hardworking Bishop, a leader who preaches unity and also one who encourages development initiatives in the Archdiocese for self-sustainability.

He said that Archbishop Ziyaye is also taking a leading role in the construction of a 4000 capacity Cathedral at Maula in Lilongwe. “The Archbishop treats us all equally. He normally says, the Church is made up of us all,” said Dr. Misomali.

He added; “We wish the Archbishop, all the best as he celebrates his Silver Jubilee and at the same time ask the Almighty God to guide him and also give him more years so that he continues working for the betterment of the Church in Malawi”.

People from all walks of life including his personal friends, Archbishop Liborius Ndumbukuti Nasheda of Windhoek Archdiocese in Namibia and Bishop Mickael Bhasela of Masvingo Diocese in Zimbabwe and Deputy Head of the Diplomatic Mission of the Holy See, Apostolic Nunciature of Zambia and Malawi, Monsignor Andriy Yevchuk will grace the occasion. Malawi’s Vice President, Saulosi Chilima will also represent President Peter Mutharika.

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The New Apostolic Nuncio to Tanzania Most Rev Marek Solczynski has arrived in the country following his appointment by the Holy Father in April this year.

The Apostolic Nuncio was welcomed by the Vice-President of Tanzania Episcopal Conference, Most Rev Beatus Kinyaiya who was accompanied by the Vatican Embassy Secretary Msgr. Daniel Pacho; Rt Rev Liberatus Sangu of the Catholic Diocese of Shinyanga, Rt Rev. Alfred Maluma of the Catholic Diocese of Njombe; TEC Deputy Secretary General Rev Fr. Daniel Dulle and other TEC officials.

Archbishop Solczynski is taking over the position from Most Rev. Francis Padilla who was appointed by the Holy Father as Apostolic Nuncio to Kuwait and Apostolic delegate to the Arabian Peninsula in April 2016.

Prior to his appointment, Archbishop Solczynski was a Vatican Ambassador in Georgia, Armenia

and Azerbaijan.

Archbishop Solczynski was born in Poland on 7th April 1961 and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Warsaw on 28th May 1987. He was ordained Titular Archbishop of Caesarea in Mauretaniain January 2012.

He holds Doctorate in Canon Law and apart from his native language Polish, Archbishop Marek is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian as well as Russian languages.

By Bernard James, Kiongozi Newspaper Tanzania Episcopal Conference.

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Rome, Italy, Jul 15, 2017 / 06:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The head of communications for Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Chile said the country is in a period of social unrest, but the country has hope his trip will help them to rebuild on a foundation of love and tenderness.

“We are really expecting that he will start a 'revolution of tenderness,' those are the words of the Pope,” Fr. Felipe Herrera told CNA July 12.

“We have no social cohesion…people are angry against the government, congress, against the Church, against big enterprises, small enterprises, even with their neighbors. We need to rebuild our society on love, trust, fraternity and freedom. So we hope to hear that from the Pope.”

Fr. Felipe Herrera, a priest of the Archdiocese of Santiago, said all Chilean people, not only the Catholics, are excited about the visit.

What will be the Pope’s main message of the trip? The only one who can know that for sure “is the Pope” himself, Fr. Herrera said, but they expect him to bring “the word of Christ, the word of the Lord, particularly calling all Christians to be involved in the life of society.”

“Sometimes as a Church, we live inside of the ‘temple,’ and we need to go out and to witness his love everywhere. And in this case I think we need to rebuild our country in fraternity and trusting each other.”

A detailed schedule of the Pope’s trip has not yet been released, but the Vatican announced in June that Francis will visit Santiago, Temuco, and Iquique Jan. 15-18, 2018. From there, the Roman Pontiff will travel to Peru Jan. 18-21.

His first stop will be the capital city of Santiago, from there traveling south to Temuco, in one of the regions affected by devastating wildfires that raged for weeks in January 2017.

Considered the worst in the Chile’s history for the damage caused, at least 11 people lost their lives in the flames, and countless homes, livestock, and pastures were destroyed. The Pope’s visit will fall just one year after the fires.

Temuco is in a very beautiful area of the country though, Fr. Herrera said. It is also the home of the indigenous Mapuche people, who have been at the center of a decades-long conflict surrounding the rightful ownership of the territory.

Since the start of the disputes in the 1990s, Mapuche have been responsible for fires, shootings, and kidnappings in the country, as negotiations to return their rightful land, taken from them by former dictator Augusto Pinochet, have stalled.

In 2016, 227 acts of violence were reported in the Araucania and Biobio regions, including 61 building fires. Of these, 16 were churches or other religious structures.

There has been conflict, Fr. Herrera said, because of the land they have not received, but deserve. “I think the Pope will bring a ceasefire message to that area.”

In the north of the country is the town of Iquique, a city which receives most of the immigrants coming into Chile, so it’s likely the Pope will have a message for immigrants in that city, he said.

Iquique is also the capital of religious festivities in Chile.

Nearly 50 miles to the east, in the same diocese, is the town of La Tirana, home of a shrine to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. There, every year starting on July 12 and ending on the feast day of July 16, Chile holds a week-long festival celebrating Our Lady, including fireworks and traditional dances.

Considering his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Francis is likely to make a stop at one of the country’s many shrines to Our Lady, including, possibly, the shrine to the Immaculate Conception, on top of Santiago’s San Cristóbal Hill.

One of the principal shrines in Chile, it is known for its large statue of the Immaculate Conception, which is 46 feet tall and stands on a 27 foot tall pedestal.

St. John Paul II visited the shrine during his visit to Chile in 1987. His trip 30 years ago is still remembered and spoken of by the Chilean people today, Fr. Herrera said. He hopes this new visit by a Pope will have the same effect.

“We hope that this new visit from the Pope will bring us a real ‘revolution of tenderness’ among all Chileans and will be a huge topic for the next 30 years,” he said.

“We need a revolution of tenderness, loving each other, and fraternity among all Chileans.”

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