Voices February 15, 2018
Olympic gold for Vatican participation
By Paul Schratz - Life In The Schratz Lane
Stephanie Gray gives a pro-life talk at Google last year. There is still room for respectful dialogue in the world between parties that don't see eye to eye, writes Paul Schratz.
There won’t be any gold medals for the Vatican in Pyeongchang, but there is a Vatican Olympic first. The Holy See was invited to attend a session of the International Olympic Committee as an observer just before the Winter Games got under way.
The Vatican delegation also attended the opening ceremony in South Korea, just as it did the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. This time, however, Team Vatican actually attended an IOC session where sport and Olympic issues were discussed.
It may be a small step, but in a world where political tension and nuclear brinkmanship dominate the news, it’s uplifting to see the forging of new relationships and new means of communication.
The Olympic invitation reminded me of several other cultural rapprochements that took place over the past year, all of them inspiring hope that there’s still room for respectful dialogue in the world between parties that don’t see eye to eye on very much.
One was Pope Francis addressing a TED Talk in Vancouver. Entitled The FutureYou, The Pope proposed “a revolution of tenderness” starting with hope. “A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you,” he said.
His message was welcomed by a world where opportunities for dialogue have been replaced by excuses for censoring and banning. Francis succeed by reaching out in a novel and accessible way, building a bridge between the Church and the world in a way that transcends traditional religious, secular, and political boundaries.
Then there was Stephanie Gray at Google. The Vancouver pro-lifer was invited to speak at the tech giant after an earlier presentation delivered by Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Give credit to Google, which despite having a reputation for being antagonistic toward conservatives gave her a respectful reception. Gray hit it out of the park, explaining how it's possible to have respectful discussion on a hot-button topic like abortion. The YouTube video of her talk now sits at more than 130,000 views.
That was followed by Bishop Robert Barron, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who gave a talk at Facebook Headquarters. His presentation, How toHave a Religious Argument, addressed the privatization of faith, the religion of scientism, and his central point, that argument is not only the road toward truth, but the path to peace.
Using St. Thomas Aquinas as a model for authentic, respectful dialogue, he urged his Facebook audience to “seek with great patience to understand your opponent's position.”
One of Pope Benedict XVI’s priorities during his pontificate was interreligious discussion and dialogue with non-believers, inspiring him to establish the Courtyard of the Gentiles in the manner of the Temple of Jerusalem where pagans and Jews discussed matters of faith in Jesus’ time.
Since 2009, believers and non-believers have come together for Courtyard of the Gentiles events around the world to discuss issues of faith and culture.
It’s exciting to see Catholic speakers responding to invitations from the Olympics, TED Talks, Google, and Facebook, in a manner that represents a virtual extension of the Courtyard of the Gentiles.
All of us need to continually look for ways to build bridges between believers and non-believers. The world needs to see that banning, censoring and unfriending aren’t the only ways to engage opposing viewpoints.