BERN, Switzerland, SEPT. 6, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Politics needs to rediscover the meaning of “fraternity” if it is to be a decisive agent of peace, the founder of the Focolare Movement told a group of Swiss politicians.
In the context of the terrorist violence in the Russian republic of North Ossetia, Chiara Lubich proposed to representatives of the Swiss National Council and the Youth Parliament of Valais that fraternity be a “fundamental political category.”
The theme of the meeting, organized in the Palace of Congresses by the Political Movement of Unity, a Focolare-inspired group, was “Fraternity in Politics: Utopia or Necessity?”
“Fraternity in politics could not be more timely, given the terror, the dead and the violence,” said Annemarie Huber Holz, chancellor of the Helvetian Confederation, when opening the congress.
To silence terrorism, “the answer is certainly not violence,” Lubich stressed. What must be addressed, she said, are “the causes of the economic and social imbalances that generate resentment, hostility and vengeance.”
“It is necessary to pursue the paths of dialogue, [and] political and diplomatic paths,” the Focolare founder insisted.
It is urgent that politics be based on fraternity, which Lubich described “not only as a value or method, but as the global paradigm of political development.”
Fraternity is only possible “if the spiritual dimension is not forgotten,” the profound values inspired by love, she added. “That love which is source of light, which makes one see the possibility of great results and which replaces that crushing fear that often passes through the political world.”
