Porto Alegre - WCC general assembly

Porto Alegre, Brazil, Feb 15 - Attending the press conferences, I have the impression that the life of the ecumenical journalist is much easier than the life of the regular media joe that earns his living by squeezing the last drop out of everything. During the first press conferences I was really surprised to discover the lack of unaccommodating questions. Not all the questions were downright bland, but I felt a certain complaisance animating the interogatory concerns of the press. The typical "What should WCC do to be heard more in the secular press?", otherwise inviting nothing but twisted diplomacy, or the apparent sharp questions addressing unclear points in the comments of those holding the conference, that in the end turned to show rather the lack of preparation of those asking. This for me, if thinking of the secular press in my country, seemed like a return in time, or if thinking of the religious press in my church, seemed like an unpleasantly familiar return in space.

A press conference was organized today with metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Patriachate of Moscow. He seemed to close the mouth of everybody with the sudden annoucement of a "world summit of religious leaders" designed to come up with a crucial inter-religious statement just before the G8 summit hosted by Russia in mid-July 2006 (Russia currently has the presidency of the G8).

The press seemed to be amazed with this pompous announcement, forgetting to notice the lack of consistency of this declaration and therefore forgetting to corner bishop Kyrill and trying to get some emotions rolling from behind his seemingly impenetrable composure. After being asked about details, according to Kyrill there are for now only some unconclusive confirmations of some Christian leaders (he failed to make precise points), while the significant leaders from the non-Christian traditions have not yet confirmed the presence or availability.
With only six months to go, this might be nothing but empty talk, wishful thinking or grandeur hunting. Moreover, no one in the press questioned either the relevancy or the efficiency of such an inter-religious summit. In metropolitan Kyrill's own words uttered today, all meetings of this kind held in the wake of 9/11 failed by not being able to reach the heart of the clash of civilizations and/or cultures. They failed to reach the extremists in the religious tradition, and such they failed to put an end to terrorism, religious wars, religious animosities or even make religious enmities milder for a start.
What is it that makes metropolitan Kyrill think that such a summit held in Moscow and orchestrated by a Church that never ceased to show that it enjoys hard, strict and conservative stances, hardly conducive to dialogue and cooperation, would be a success? Is the Moscow patriarchate holding a secret card that we are not aware of? Does metropolitan Kyrill in particular think that rushing religious leaders from all over the world to Moscow or St. Petersburg just before the G8 meets and pressing hard for a common statment shall abruptly alleviate the world's political problems that stem from a clashing religious background? There are some for which this script looks like a recourse to the old ideological gatherings of the marxist times, when the voice of the people was hastily put together by the secretaries with propaganda.
Of course, maybe it would be nice to have a common statement coming from the world religous leaders, but then, wouldn't it be one of that long line of statements that bishop Kyrill deplored? What would be the extraordinary original input that the pre-G8 meeting would offer to the world of inter-religious dialogue? Is consensus among the big of the world enought to quench the hatred and vindictivness of the small of the world, of extremists and fundamentalists alike?
These were questions never asked in our small auditorium.

Hopefully, in the coming days, Habitus shall try to make a name with its poignant, striking, maybe brazen questions. But my own confession is that we are not here in any case to be afraid that we might lose anything by asking the difficult questions from the people that claim to be in the elite of the good-willing of the world.

Stay tuned,
Cristian