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Easter / Earth Day, April 23, 2000
Pope John Paul II
Vatican City
Your Holiness:
In November of 1999, this Committee sent to you a letter bearing 1,643
signatures representing the many millions of Pagans worldwide, and requesting
the inclusion of our Pagan forebears (i.e. peoples of indigenous pre-Christian
religious beliefs and cultures) in your March 12, 2000 Mass of Pardon:
“Universal Prayer; Confession of Sins and Asking for Forgiveness.”
We now thank you for having phrased your apology in a manner broad
enough to encompass the ethnic, ancestral traditions of Paganism and Witchcraft,
and the many people who were persecuted and put to death for adhering to those
practices, when you confessed that:
“...Christians have often denied the Gospel; yielding to a mentality
of power, they have violated the rights of ethnic groups and peoples, and shown
contempt for their cultures and religious traditions...”
This was a courageous and historic step, which we acknowledge with
appreciation. We are also inspired by the words of Bishop Chemello of Brazil, in
his April, 2000 Apology Address: “It cannot just be a spoken forgiveness, it has
to be a real reconciliation and that requires concrete actions.” We agree
strongly with the following words from the Roman Catholic Catechism, as an
affirmation of the need for active redress:
“1459 Many sins wrong our neighbor. One must do what is possible in
order to repair the harm (e.g., return stolen goods, restore the reputation of
someone slandered, pay compensation for injuries). Simple justice requires as
much... Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual
health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must “make
satisfaction for” or “expiate” his sins... “ (Roman Catholic Catechism,
copyright 1994, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Citta del Vaticano).
We look forward to a time when indigenous sacred sites, archived texts
of relevance to indigenous religions, and common religious holy days may be
freely shared between the Church and other religions.
We take great hope from your words of contrition and reconciliation.
Additionally, we believe that this awakening religious tolerance must also
include dialogue among the various religious traditions so that mutual
understanding and education can occur. Thus, we would like to invite the Church
and all other religions at this time to engage in such dialogue and
education.
Interfaith colloquy is an urgent necessity as the members of our faith
tradition continue to suffer from the negative stereotypes and religious bigotry
resulting from hundreds of years of persecution. Thus, despite the hope inspired
by your brave message, we are appalled by the Church’s continuing
characterization of Nazism as “a Pagan ideology.” (Memory and Reconciliation:
The Church and the Faults of the Past; Section 5.4)
This is not only offensive to Pagans, but implicates the Church as well,
since Christian institutions were also used by the Nazis. Hitler co-opted many
types of dialogue and symbolism, including Christian ones, for his own ends.
Contemporary Pagans espouse tolerance, not hatred, and we find it abhorrent that
the Nazis so corrupted elements both from the pre-Christian Norse/Germanic
religions and Christianity.
We are heartened by your recent further apology to Jewish people on your
pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We support your commitment to making amends, and we
hope there will be more understanding and collaboration among Roman Catholics,
Jews, and Pagans, as well as with other peoples. Life in the modern world
demands tolerance, education, and the ability to progress toward enlightenment
without persecution, fear, or prejudice.
Celebration of diversity is the essence of Paganism past and present,
since Pagans are pantheists who see the divine manifested in each living being
in the world, and therefore also in the practitioners of other religions than
our own. We share in the firm commitment shown by the Church under your guidance
to the practice of tolerance among people of all faiths. We seek to help bring
forth a world in which doctrines, prayers, sacred sites, and conceptualizations
of the Divine of all religions will be treated with equal respect.
We have only one world. We must now move forward with the real work at
hand: that of teaching our respective religious communities how to grow and
thrive, peacefully and spiritually, on this beautiful planet which we all share,
and for whose sake we must learn to live in harmony.
Sincerely yours,
(SIGNATORIES 1068+ to date)
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