January 7, 2006

Democratic Personalism



About 3 years ago, when I was living in Rome at the Emmanuel School of Mission , one evening we were visited by George Pell, the archbishop of Sidney, which is a good friend to the director of the School, Steve.

The archbishop had dinner with us, and afterwards we (he and all the students) had a very interesting conversation. I remember we were at the time just before the beginning of war in Irak, and I spoke about the subject and raised several questions. At the time, I was shocked at the way some of my american schoolmates discussed the subject. I wandered if the simple fact that we were christians shouldn't be enough for us to be against all wars. The archbishop gave me an answer full of wisdom and balance, which was like a lesson to me. He showed me where he thought I was right and where I was being unrealistic. Among other things he said that any christian , in order to be a real one, ought to desire peace with all his strength, but that not all wars could be avoided. That a country cannot do without an army, just as it cannot do without a police force. That Christ has always been peaceful, yet He did not avoid the military. Neither did John the Baptist, when preaching to the soldiers, command them to abandon arms.

A few months later, while I was still in Rome, the archbishop was appointed a Cardinal.

These days I found a very lucid proposition by him on how we could face the crisis of democracy we are going through. It is worth reading.


http://www.acton.org/publicat/m_and_m/new/article.php?article=7

1 comment:

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