Archbishop Objects to 'Christianophobia'

"Christianophobia" -- a term that refers to acts of violence, persecution, intolerance and discrimination against Christians -- is a reality.

RIMINI, Italy (Zenit) - Discrimination against Christians is as equally unacceptable as anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and should be resisted with the same force, according to the Vatican secretary for relations with states.Archbishop Dominique Mamberti said this today at the Rimini meeting organized by the lay movement Communion and Liberation. The annual event is under way through Saturday.

During his talk, titled "Protection and Right of Religious Liberty," the archbishop made reference to the wave of anti-Christian violence that has swept over the Indian State of Orissa since Monday.He affirmed that the Holy See "ceaselessly underlines that the principle of the right of religious liberty lies in the very dignity of all human persons."

Christians have been on the receiving end of numerous acts of violence in the Orissa after a Hindu leader was killed in the state's Kandhamal district last Saturday. The episcopal conference of India has put the number of deaths at 26.Archbishop Mamberti said the phenomenon called "Christianophobia" -- a term that refers to acts of violence, persecution, intolerance and discrimination against Christians -- is a reality.In many countries, the archbishop explained, "Christians are victims of prejudice, stereotypes and intolerance, at times of a cultural nature."

He said that it's a "paradox" to not guarantee Christians the same freedoms granted to other religions, or "to create a sort of 'hierarchy' of intolerances." The goal, affirmed the 56-year-old prelate, is the total "elimination of discrimination and intolerance."
Archbishop Mamberti acknowledged as well that it would be a "mistake" for religious communities to criticize as discrimination any legitimate legal or administrative measure used against them.

Truth, not tolerance

Tolerance, continued the archbishop, is not truth.The dignity of man, from which stems religious liberty, "is based on his capacity for truth," he affirmed. "To make tolerance an absolute is, instead, to withdraw in face of this dignity."To make tolerance an absolute means, in fact, to transform it into a supreme value, but this inevitably puts truth in second place and makes it relativize."

"To give up truth," said the prelate, "in turn abandons man in the hands of the strongest, the useful or the immediate, depriving the person of his greatness."
For this reason, said Archbishop Mamberti, the Holy See has worked to ensure that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's so-called Program on Tolerance "not address exclusively the grave phenomena of anti-Semitism and discrimination against Muslims, but also the equally unacceptable incidents of intolerance against Christians."