World Tolerance Day
Hard times for tolerance…last year, in fact, we wrote:
“Today we continue to be unfamiliar with this word. The word that seems to be in vogue is ‘intolerance’: racial, religious, political, cultural, towards foreigners, towards opposing political factions, towards homosexuals, etc.”. If we look up the word ‘tolerance’ in the dictionary, it is defined as the theoretical and practical attitude of someone who, in matters of religion, politics, ethics, science, art, literature or, in general, other moral principles, respects the beliefs of others, even if they are profoundly different from his own, without preventing him from practising them.”
Intolerance is often associated with fear and/or ignorance. Such emotional states are ‘learned’ through imitation from a young age; therefore, more attention must be paid to the education of tolerance and human rights… Children and adolescents should look with curiosity at their neighbours and open up to the world because peace is not achieved through hatred. And without peace there can be no future for any of us.
How often Pope Francis calls for the courage of otherness:
“If we believe in the existence of the human family, it follows that it, as such, must be preserved. As in any family, this takes place first of all through daily and effective dialogue. It presupposes one’s own identity, which must not be abdicated in order to please the other. But at the same time it demands the ‘courage of otherness’, which implies full recognition of the other and his freedom, and the consequent commitment to strive to ensure that his fundamental rights are affirmed always, everywhere and by everyone. Because without freedom we are no longer children of the human family, but slaves. Among the freedoms I would like to highlight religious freedom. It is not limited to freedom of worship, but sees in the other person truly a brother, a child of my own humanity whom God sets free and whom therefore no human institution can force, not even in his name”. (Speech in Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019).