– Joseph Victor Edwin SJ
19 May 2024: Jesuits and collaborators commemorated the International Day of Living Together in Peace by organizing a two-day seminar on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together at the Shrine Retreat Centre in Veilankanni. The event, held on May 14 and 15, 2024, was co-hosted by the Gandhian Society Villages Association, Devakottai, Our Lady of Health Shrine Basilica, Veilankanni, and the Islamic Studies Association, bringing together around 40 participants from three major religious traditions.
Fr. Cyril SJ, the seminar’s convenor, underscored the seminar’s importance by highlighting the current global threats from war, conflict, rising crime rates, natural disasters, and pandemics. He emphasized the pressing need for dialogue and peace, noting the ongoing struggle for India’s identity amidst efforts to promote an exclusive vision of the country as a Hindu Nation. This vision, he warned, marginalizes Dalits, tribals, and minority groups, risking the transformation of India’s democracy into an electoral dictatorship.
Fr. Cyril SJ stressed that the Indian Constitution is a beacon of hope, enshrining the values of diversity and inclusion, and upholding India’s status as an independent, socialist, secular, democratic republic. The Constitution guarantees Justice, Equality, Liberty, and Fraternity for all citizens, embodying the essence of India’s unity in diversity.
Joseph Victor Edwin SJ, a speaker at the seminar, drew on the Human Fraternity Document co-signed by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyib, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University. He highlighted the need for a more peaceful, just, and harmonious world, urging participants to see each other through the eyes of faith, recognizing mutual signs of faith rather than focusing on differences.
Edwin addressed the challenges of building a fraternal world in the face of xenophobia, polarization, and discrimination. He stressed that these issues often stem from a departure from religious values such as peace, goodness, human fraternity, and coexistence. He called on people of goodwill to act with confidence, understanding the suffering of others by putting themselves in their shoes, and ending violence perpetrated in the name of God.
Kulandai Samy, a Gandhian, and Eronimus, a cultural educationist, provided training on recognizing and reconciling the similarities and differences among various cultural traditions. They taught strategies for reaching consensus and resolving disputes through patience and perseverance, as well as managing cultural diversity democratically by adjusting social and political structures as needed.
During the seminar, Gandhian Kulandai Samy was appointed Convenor of the Human Fraternity Forum, with Tamilarasi and Eronimus named as secretaries. Fr. Cyril SJ and Ms. Ananya, an active student member of the Human Fraternity Forum Coimbatore Chapter, were also included in the core group.
