PROGRAMMATIC PAPER
Memory, Truth, Justice
The challenge: reconciliation and just peace
Programmatic paper on the study days of the Conference of European Justice and Peace Commissions 2006 – 2008
Overcoming violence, prospects of a just peace and of reconciliation between nations, groups and individuals – these are among the major topics of mankind. Our world today is marked by countless wars, conflicts and violent regimes. Talking about reconciliation is frequently dismissed as naïve and unrealistic and used in grandiloquent speeches to calm down emotions. All too often and all too soon talking about reconciliation degenerates into political propaganda. Generally, those concerned are disappointed and turn away. The Church’s teaching on peace cannot be content with such a view of things. It is no coincidence that, in the course of history, numerous initiatives have emerged from the spirit of this peace theory. The experiences – and sometimes even mistakes – made so far can be of great value for the actions we take.
One central point in this context is that we have come to understand the specific impacts of violence and of experienced violence. This means that all parties involved are – though to varying degrees – marked by the process of violence and thus are part of it. Violence continues to have an effect and leaves traces on both perpetrators and victims, even when the actual act of violence is over. It sticks in the minds of the victims and their relatives who are quite often tempted to take revenge, to resort to counterviolence. Likewise, the act of violence continues to have an effect on the perpetrators which is manifested mostly in raging and cold-blooded denial and less frequently in feelings of shame. Both victims and perpetrators are faced with the effects of violence. Especially in cases of long-lasting systematic violence, the implications go far beyond the immediate perpetrator-victim constellation.
There is no doubt about it, a history burdened with violence lays dynamite at the foundations of society and for the coexistence of peoples. The European unification process, for example, is not least a response to this. It takes a very long time until the impacts of violence ease off. The experienced violence quite often becomes part of the daily lives of people to such an extent that it is not even perceived as such. Violence and counterviolence perpetuate, leaving no chance for those concerned to escape from their tragic involvements.
One of the priorities of the Church’s peace activities therefore is to encourage a differentiated perception of the forms of violence in society. Contrary to the well known and tempting inclination to dissolve the painful memory of violence in imaginations of a return to normality, the peace activities of the Church focus on voicing the structures and the real histories of violence in a patient and self-critical way. In this context, it is important to resist the temptation of easy general confessions of guilt, which will always remain superficial and unspecific; but it is also important not to give way to the urge for drawing clear lines. Much as one might wish to draw a clear line between the past and the future, such an approach is unrealistic and merely conceals the wounds that need to be treated instead of helping to heal them. It is only in rare cases that the short-term impact of a relative pacification of the situation is responsibly balanced against the medium and long-term contamination of societies. Given the increasing political tendency to present immediate success which is to be observed particularly in Western strongly media-oriented societies, it is all the more important to insist on dealing with the problem of violence and peace on a longer-term basis. The slow-acting poison of experienced violence is all too soon ignored. The victims and survivors are left alone with their wounds and again suffer exclusion and isolation. One of the Church’s tasks is to stand by the victims and to find ways to make their stories heard and to ease their pain.
But to ensure credibility of her peace activities, the Church must also submit herself to a self-critical examination of her involvement just as all parts of society. It is a well known fact that the Church had and even today has deficiencies in this respect. Therefore, the Church must resist the same temptations and mechanisms to be observed in the respective societies and must find constructive answers. Referring to the mystic and holy character of the Church is of little help here and rather serves as an argument for suppression. It is only in an obvious participation in processes of overcoming violence that the profound concept of peace will find its full expression. The confession of guilt much observed world-wide which Pope John Paul II submitted for the Catholic Church in March 2000 points in this direction.
The study days 2006 – 2008 should be designed to pursue this path and to put our peace political activities in more concrete terms. The manifold experiences and open questions will be related to the priorities and requirements of the national commissions. These are quite heterogeneous due to the different political and historical national backgrounds in Europe. While some have to focus on dealing with the colonial heritage, others concentrate on the consequences of communist rule, national conflicts or recently experienced wars and violence. Although all these problems seem to be quite different at a first glance, they nevertheless are interrelated in many aspects. A better knowledge of unsettled questions of the most recent past and of their impact on peace and reconciliation will promote mutual understanding within the European Conference and improve our capacity to act. There is much we can learn from each other.
However, the study days are not only meant to be a forum for academic reflection. Selecting the place and character of the meetings shall be a symbolic act in itself. The selection of future venues shall depend on the subjects to be discussed. This will contribute to give the Conference of European Justice and Peace Commissions a clearer political and ecclesiastical profile and to find constructive answers to the urgent political questions of peace and reconciliation in Europe. The subjects to be discussed will continue to be selected according to the particular challenges at the time.
We suggest that in 2006 the secretaries general will meet in Berlin. As hardly any other European city, Berlin is a symbol of the European division between East and West – a division which has left its marks until today, even within the European Conference.
The general assembly, however, is proposed to take place in Belfast. The Northern Ireland conflict is deeply rooted in the Irish-English history and is one of the classical post-colonial conflicts in Europe. Here, the Church is challenged in a special way not least because of the fact that conflict and denominational lines largely coincide. The many years of experience in dealing with this conflict may be enriching for our work.
It would be desirable that at the end of each assembly a subject-related statement is formulated which illustrates the perspectives of our activities and manifests the profile of our work.
31-08-05
