by Isabel Smyth

The Scottish Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Interreligious Dialogue held its annual symposium last month. The main speaker on Friday evening was Martha Inés Romero who is the General Secretary of Pax Christi International, a Catholic peace movement, with 120 member organisations across the world. It promotes peace, respect for human rights, justice and reconciliation. Set up at the end of the Second World War, Pax Christi believes that peace is possible and that vicious cycles of violence and injustice can be broken.

Its work for peace and advocacy for non-violent action are admirable but not straightforward. Should a country defend itself? Are boycotts really non-violent or are they masking an attitude of non-violence? How do we avoid a black and white response to conflicts without knowing the history of the people, as is often the case; especially, in my experience, with attitudes to Palestine. Is dividing the world into them and us, good and bad really helping us develop the compassion necessary to be peacemakers? Should we not, in this day and age, be trying to overcome the dualism that has set us apart from one another and causes conflict?

Difficult dialogues

Some of these questions were taken up at the symposium by Dr Maureen Sier, the Director of Interfaith Scotland who spoke about her experience of difficult dialogues in Scotland. This helped us face the nitty gritty, not only of dialogue, but also of peacebuilding.

Isabel Smyth is a Sister of Notre Dame who has been an interfaith practitioner for many years. Follow her reflections here

Photo by Priscilla du Preez on Unsplash