euro|topics - Joaquin Navarro-Valls

09/01/2009

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Navarro-Valls, Joaquin

2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

La Repubblica - Italy | 07/01/2009

Islamic demonstration in Italy

Joaquin Navarro-Valls, long-time director of the Vatican's press office, stresses in a commentary the importance of a climate of religious freedom which underlies the demonstrations by Italian Muslims against Israel's offensive in Gaza. "The use of the public prayer for political purposes must not be equated with combining religion and terrorism. On the contrary: the wish to seek a political and cultural identity in traditional faith is no outpost of terrorism, but a remedy for it. ... We must understand that the freedom of which we in Europe are so proud - one politically and legally sanctioned on very few other continents - is always based on the religious freedom of others. ... Seeing that Muslims in Italy may practise their faith in front of the cathedrals will certainly inspire many Muslims elsewhere in the world to grant similar rights to Christian and Jewish minorities."

La Repubblica - Italy | 01/10/2007

Joaquin Navarro-Valls on the crisis of democracies

For Joaquin Navarro-Valls, former spokesman for John Paul II in the Vatican, all European democracies are going through a crisis of confidence for lack of consensus. "There is a gap that is impossible to bridge between politicians and citizens. This dissociation of political life and real life as experienced by people creates an environment that favours demagogy and defeatism. The problem actually almost always begins with a loss of hope that ends up dragging everything down with it, including politics, into a general whirlpool of pessimism ... . Democracy is only maintained thanks to citizens' involvement in the life of institutions. This is why institutions need to give an active role to citizens ... . In the absence of this participation, democracy is incomplete, it goes into crisis and only partially works."

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