Racism bears false witness, says Arinze

by Lucy Lethbridge A leading Vatican official has said that Muslims and Christians must unite to show the world that religious belief is not a disruptive force but a foundation for peace.
Cardinal Francis Arinze. the President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. was speaking last week in an annual message to Muslims during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting.
The Cardinal. whose native Nigeria has faced outbreaks of ethnic and religious violence in recent years. stressed the need for Muslims and Christians to work together. He said that when Christians and Muslims are intolerant of others, when they give way to confessional hatred. racist attacks. the slaughter of innocents. so-called ethnic cleansing and other forms of oppression and wrongdoing, they bear false witness against the good and loving .God in whom they believe."
Although the Cardinal was careful not to name countries where religious difference has been a factor in civil strife, his use of the term "ethnic cleansing" was a clear reference to the policies implemented by Serbian militias in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the , majority of the population are Slavic Muslims.
Cardinal Arinze's remarks come at a time when relations between the Vatican and the Islamic community have been strained by Pontifical warnings to Catholic women about marrying Muslim men and urging Bosnian women raped by Serbian soldiers not to have abortions. Sensitive moral issues have been raised by John Paul II's plea against abortion in the case of wartime rape. Last week, the Vatican responded to allegations by an Italian Franciscan priest, that the Pope's appeal to raped Bosnian women was not consistent with the Church's practices where missionary nuns became pregnant through rape.
Vatican spokesman Mgr Piero Pennacchini said that there has never been a situation when abortion has been counselled for raped and pregnant nuns: "Never, in any case, has abortion been legitimised" he said. Church leaders acknowledged that there have been cases where nuns in Croatia and Bosnia have been raped but few details have been made public and reports of pregnancy among the victims have not been confirmed.
However while the Church has categorically ruled out abortion in these cases, it has not formally pronounced on the ethics of preventing pregnancy with contraception in emergency situations.
Mgr Pennacchini said that no overall policy had been devised to cover such possibilities but an informed Vatican official, who asked not to be named, said that there were sound theological arguments in favour of using contraception in these particular circumstances. He went on to say that the "dominant" theological view was that any woman. including a nun, could use nonabortifacient contraceptives as a form of "self-defence".