Reconciliation Is Key to Peace in World Conflicts, Professor Says

India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons, faced off last summer over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Daniel Philpott, senior associate with the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, a nongovernmental organization focusing on peacemaking based on religious tradition, has conducted faith-based reconciliation workshops in the territory.

Philpott, assistant professor of government and international studies at Notre Dame, is a member of the Sant' Egidio Community, which has a track record in mediating international disputes. He spoke with Register correspondent Martin Mazloom about India and Pakistan's hope for peace.

When you go to a place like Kashmir, how does a “faith-based reconciliation” workshop work?

Kashmir is the centerpiece of my reconciliation work [with the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy]. We present a Cursillo-like seminar, talks and discussions for three days. We developed it as a Christian-oriented seminar. We have also brought in Muslim understandings of forgiveness from the Koran. We focus on young Muslims who will probably become leaders in their fields: students, journalists, professors, activists. We've had very good success. We've done these workshops several times with powerful effects. I went in October to help with a new initiative; we're pushing for the return of Hindu refugees living in refugee camps. They were kicked out of their homes by Muslims in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Do you feel you have been successful?

Have we solved this problem? It's not for us to solve. There are factors beyond our control. We just make a long-term commitment to building relationships and imparting forgiveness there. Someone once asked Mother Teresa, “Do you feel successful?” She replied, “My mission is to be faithful, not successful.” We're just instruments.

What are some of the more intense encounters you have had when working with people in these workshops?

There is a man named Firdous Syed. He joined the militant uprising against the Indian government in Kashmir and became the founder of a separatist military organization. He was captured by the Indian army and spent two years in jail. After jail, he joined mainstream Indian society and became a peace activist. He decided to leave the military uprising after seeing much death, realizing that the armed solution was not the best way to work for peace.

Another man who went through our seminar was a Muslim, the son of a prominent Muslim politician. His father and brother were both killed by Muslim militants. One night the same killers came for him. They shot him more than 30 times, but he survived. He went through nine surgeries. He vowed to seek revenge, to hunt down and kill his attackers. At the seminar, though, he had a deep change of heart. He made a commitment to forgive his attackers — from the heart. It was very emotional. There were tears going down his face. He also made a commitment to work with children who have lost parents because of violence. The forgiveness is something he's living out.

In your experience, are people open to reconciling with longtime foes and to resolving perennial conflicts?

We never ask anyone to forgive. At the beginning of these seminars, people start off skeptical. A lot of contentious stuff comes out, arguments come out. We see this as success. This is not touchy-feely, cheap reconciliation we're after. You do see open disputes. But usually by the end of a seminar, a lot of people have moved some distance. We've seen a lot of people come closer to reconciliation and working toward it.

Have you seen terrorism impede the progress of these workshops?

It's sad, but violent incidents that happen between Muslim separatists and the Indian authorities are daily occurrences. … The biggest obstacle was back in June when we couldn't go to Kashmir because of the war scare. They [India and Pakistan] were threatening each other with war. … The fact that they both have nuclear weapons does make things scary. Short of war, though, the daily violence doesn't really impede our work.

What do you think of the document on forgiveness that the Vatican released two years ago, “Memory and Reconciliation?” What can we as Catholics learn from it? Have you seen any impact made by the document?

You can see how reconciliation has deeply informed and infused the Holy Father's thinking. There are three key themes Pope John Paul II has emphasized. The first is the carrying on of the practice of apology and repentance that began at Vatican II. He's carried it on and expanded it. He's practiced apology more than 100 times with 20 different people groups or incidents: the Indians, the Jews, the Crusades, the Muslims. It culminated on Ash Wednesday of the Jubilee Year.

The second is the teaching of forgiveness as a social practice. This appears in his 1980 encyclical Dives in Misercordia (Rich in Mercy). It's a very interesting discussion that is often overlooked. Forgiveness has to be integrated with justice. The Pope has repeatedly encouraged people to forgive. Earlier last year, he called for forgiveness of those who committed the attacks of 9/11.

The third is the practice of dialogue with groups estranged from the Church, be it ecumenical or interreligious. Under John Paul, reconciliation has become a major new theme in Catholic social thought. Students looking back 20 years from now should see it as a major new development. His practice of reconciliation with the Jews has been most dramatic of all. He's the Pope under whom the Vatican recognized the state of Israel. He visited a synagogue in the early ’80s. His visit to the Wailing Wall was a picture saying a thousand words.

He's received criticism for the document, but he makes the distinction between the holiness of the Church — our mother — and the sins of her children. There's that beautiful line in Lumen Gentium: The Church is always holy and at the same time in need of repentance. Some ask, how can the Church confess on behalf of dead people? Well, there are the effects of their sins. Some Catholics might feel weakened by these admissions of scandals, but from the Gospel perspective, asking for forgiveness is a great act. It strengthens and purifies.

Have Catholics learned to be better forgivers?

We'll see. It takes time. The Pope's message of reconciliation is a very prophetic message. We're living in a time of deep cultural and religious division. It's been suggested that after the Cold War religious differences would divide people, the “clash of civilizations” as author Samuel Huntington puts it. We do see a resurgence of ethnic conflict after the Cold War. And we see the depth of the culture wars in America. If cultural and religious differences are particularly deep, then the message of reconciliation is something that suits our time.

Martin Mazloom writes from Monterey Park, California.