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Parolin dismisses 'clash of civilizations' rhetoric on IS at UN General Assembly

The Vatican secretary of state said such talk produces xenophobic reactions that reinforce 'sentiments at the heart of terrorism itself'
Parolin dismisses 'clash of civilizations' rhetoric on IS at UN General Assembly

Cardinal Parolin speaks at the 69th UN General Assembly in New York. (Photo by Reuters)

Published: October 02, 2014 04:56 AM GMT
Updated: October 01, 2014 06:07 PM GMT

In the address he gave at the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, the Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin stressed that according to international law, “it is both licit and urgent to stop aggression through multilateral action and a proportionate use of force.”

Some mainstream media are so used to interpreting the facts within a set framework that they immediately singled out those few phrases uttered by the cardinal, presenting them as a tacit blessing from the Vatican in favor of US intervention against Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

In reality, the Italian cardinal talked about a number of other things. His lengthy address gave an authoritative and frank overview of how the Holy See sees the state of world affairs today. It shows a clear understanding of complex historical processes that are currently unfolding.

Many parts of his speech show that the Holy See’s mindset is light years away from certain crude Western ideological frameworks that have been conditioning the interpretation of the facts in recent years.

In the opening part of his speech, Parolin stressed that Francis seconded his predecessors’ “esteem and appreciation for the United Nations as an indispensable means of building an authentic family of peoples.” None of the key passages in the text mention the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s scathing condemnation of the Catholic Church’s clerical sex abuse crisis.

Instead, Parolin spoke about the “apathy”, “synonymous with irresponsibility” shown by the UN, which “remains passive in the face of hostilities suffered by defenseless populations.”

He spoke about a “new form of terrorism” which is a phenomenon of globalization. “We are seeing a totally new phenomenon,” Parolin said. This should not be seen so much as a disease that is common in certain human environments, but rather, in terms of its global dimension.

It is no longer countries or political groups that are using terrorism as an instrument, the Vatican Secretary of State said, referring implicitly to the Islamic State’s jihadists. For the first time ever, it is a terrorist organization that is “threatening all States, vowing to dissolve them and to replace them with a pseudo-religious world government.”

It uses global communication tools to recruit proselytes, “attracting from around the world young people who are often disillusioned by a widespread indifference and a dearth of values in wealthier societies.”

The man Pope Francis chose as his Secretary of State rejected outright any ideologies brandished about by influential Western circles as keys to understanding the geopolitical events of the last 15 years, dismissing them as misleading and harmful. After the September 11 attacks, Parolin told the UN, “some media and “think tanks” oversimplified that tragic moment by interpreting all subsequent and problematic situations in terms of a clash of civilizations.  This view ignored longstanding and profound experiences of good relations between cultures, ethnic groups and religions, and interpreted through this lens other complex situations such as the Middle Eastern question and those civil conflicts presently occurring elsewhere.”

“At times, unilateral solutions have been favored over those grounded in international law. The methods adopted, likewise, have not always respected the established order or particular cultural circumstances of peoples.”

The clash of civilizations mindset “play[ed] on existing fears and prejudices,” leading “to reactions of a xenophobic nature that, paradoxically, then serve to reinforce the very sentiments at the heart of terrorism itself.”

Full story: Parolin at the UN: It is wrong to think in terms of a "clash of civilizations"

Source: Vatican Insider/La Stampa

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