XITH PLENARY ASSEMBLY OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

Porto | 22 February 2017
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

The Fondazione Mediterraneo, which was the first observer member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, took part in the work of - and contributed its 20 years’ experience in building peace and dialogue to - the 11^th Plenary Session of PAM. Moreover, the idea for PAM began in Naples in the headquarters of the Fondazione itself.

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SALESIAN COMMITMENT TO MIGRANTS AT THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM "MIGRATION AND PEACE"

Vatican City | 22 February 2017
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

(ANS - Vatican City) - The Salesians are children of a migrant, Don Bosco, who came from the rural areas of Castelnuovo d' Asti and moved to Turin. Its first recipients were young migrants and the first missionaries in Argentina had to take care of Italian migrants. But above all, today, Salesians work with and for migrants, especially children and young people, on all continents.
That's why the Salesians have spoken at the International Forum "Migration and Peace", which is taking place these days (21-22 February) in the Vatican.
The event, organized by the Ministry for the Service of Integral Human Development, the "Scalabrini International Migration Network" (SIMN) and the "Konrad Adenauer Foundation", yesterday also saw the intervention of Pope Francis, who welcomed the participants in the Clementine Room. In his speech, the Pontiff asked to be close to the people who flee from situations of danger by proposing four key words: welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating.
For their part, Don Martín Lasarte and Don George Menamparampil, Salesians, of the Sector for Missions, had the opportunity to present the approach and the different articulations of the work of the Sons of Don Bosco with migrants. They are privileged recipients of the Salesian mission, given that more than half of the 65.3 million refugees/populated (UNHCR data) are minors and the other half are mostly young, i. e. the first beneficiaries of the Salesiancharism.
In the various Salesian presences - schools, vocational training centres, oratories, social works and parishes - there are about 10.6 million people in direct contact in more than 130 countries around the world, of whom it is estimated that 16% are refugees, internally displaced persons or first or second generation immigrants. In Italy, for example, in the 50 vocational training centres, migrants account for 20% of students.
The Salesian mission therefore involves some 1.7 million people in a situation of human mobility, including some 400,000 refugees/populated persons/asylum seekers.
Interventions against them, without excluding emergency operations whenever necessary, have as their priority the development of educational processes that, within a sufficient time span, can offer migrants the means to integrate themselves into the world of work and therefore into host societies.
On the other hand, Salesians also work to transmit to host societies the values of solidarity proper to the Gospel.
They also work with specific initiatives to combat the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings, such as those of the NGO "People's Action for Rural Awakening" in the Indian region; or "Stop Treatment", in collaboration with the NGO "International Volunteering for Development" in West Africa and Ethiopia.
Finally, the Salesian side also noted the need to strengthen and make more systematic at a global level the collaboration with other Catholic institutions active in the same sector.

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THE MOROCCAN RECOGNIZES FREEDOM OF RELIGION

Rabat | 08 February 2017
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

The High Commission for Religious Affairs of Morocco, in charge of issuing fatwa (Islamic rulings), annulled its previous sentence that religious conversion constitutes an offence punishable by the death penalty. Muslims are now given the freedom to choose their beliefs.
In 2012, the High Commission for Religious Affairs published a book in which it set out its position on apostasy. Drawing on a widespread jurisprudential tradition, it was argued that a Muslim willing to change his religion should be punished with death.
Recently, this position has been contradicted by a new document published by the same religious body entitled "The Way of scholars". As the basis for the decision to set aside the judgment, the document redefines the principles of apostasy. The latter is no longer seen as a matter of faith but rather as a political position within the category of high treason.
In the "Way of scholars", the High Commission plunges into the past and suggests that once the context of apostasy and its punishment was predominantly pragmatic and political. Wars of apostasy were conducted in line with the effort to maintain the newly constituted state united against any kind of internal division. Therefore, he points out that the most accurate and consistent interpretation with Islamic law and the Prophet's example is that the killing of the apostate essentially concerns the traitor of the group, the one who escaping from Islam endangers the Umma (Islamic community) by revealing its secrets to its enemies; that is, the equivalent of betrayal in international law.
Consequently, the Prophet's word "whoever changes religion, kills him" must be interpreted as referring to the one who leaves his religion and abandons his own people.
Yet the idea that the apostate should not be killed is not new for Islam. In fact, at the time of al-Ḥudaybiyya accord, the same Mohammed observed this provision stating that anyone who had become Muslim and renounced to be Muslim would have been given the possibility to return to Quraysh, at the time the most powerful enemy of Islam.
Finally, the ecclesiastical committee also notes that in several cases the Koran speaks of apostasy and punishment in life to come, not in the present one. For example, in chapter 2 verse 217 reads:"[....] And those of you who renounce faith and die in unbelief are those who have failed in this life and in the other. Here are the companions of the Fire: they will remain in perpetuity ".
The decision, which has followed a political rather than religious reasoning - says President Michele Capasso, satisfied with the decision - is certainly significant and revolutionary for Moroccan society.
Christians, who represent a small minority in Morocco - with a Muslim majority - breathe a sigh of relief. After years of threats of persecution, the most vulnerable religious minorities can now freely choose which God to pray to..

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THE MAJOR RECTOR OF THE SALESIANS OF DON BOSCO AND THE SALESIAN FAMILY PRAY IN THE CHAPEL OF THE CHURCH OF SAINT GIUSEPPE MAGGIORE WHERE DON BOSCO CELEBRATEED MASS ON MARCH 30, 1880

Napoli | 17 February 2017
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

The Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco Don Ángel Fernández Artime - accompanied by Don Horacio Lopez and the Ambassadors to the Holy See of Panama, Miroslava Rosas Vargas, and of Guatemala, Alfredo Vàsquez Rivera with some exponents of the Salesian Family, young of the Salesian schools and migrant welcomed by Salesians in the Houses-Families prayed in the Chapel of the Church of San Giuseppe Maggiore where Don Bosco celebrated the only Mass in the South on March 30, 1880.
In this occasion the Major Rector thanked the Fondazione Mediterraneo and Michele Capasso to made this meeting and this moment of prayer possible on the occasion of the opening of the museum dedicated to "DON BOSCO THE POWER OF LOVE”.

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