Code: ZE05111506

Date: 2005-11-15

Paris Archbishop Reflects on France's Violence

Sees Need for New Ways to Mediate Problems

LISBON, Portugal, NOV. 15, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Archbishop André Vingt-Trois of Paris believes that French society must find "new mediations" in order to address the recent wave of violence that has swept the country.

"We are not faced with reproachable deeds of a category of people; there are no representatives of these groups with whom we can sit down to discuss the situation," said the archbishop when addressing the International Congress for New Evangelization, which closed in Lisbon on Sunday.

Thus it is necessary "to promote mediations," he said.

This objective "is not the task of the police," but of the intermediary entities, such as churches, associations and social works, contended Archbishop Vingt-Trois, 63.

"If we find ourselves obliged to impose a curfew so that our children are not out on the street at night, it means that there are those who do not do their job well," he continued.

Echoing conclusions of the French episcopal conference's plenary assembly, the archbishop of Paris defended a "secularity of participation," namely, a conception of secularity that does not promote "reciprocal ignorance" between the Church and state, but dialogue.

Archbishop Vingt-Trois lamented that the public powers have the temptation to deny "public space to Christianity" so as not to have to give the same space to Islam.

"I cannot admit the sociological view that speaks of the clash of civilizations," he said, adding that he is convinced that Christians and Muslims are capable of "promoting a change."