EUROPE/ITALY - The mixing of races: a possible contribution to the coexistence among peoples and cultures

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - “The mixing of races is not a confusion of cultures, nor a mere 'medley' of identities. Nor is it a political strategy in facing the reality of a continual encounter between peoples and cultures.” This was the main idea presented by Paolo Gomarasca in his recently released work entitled “Mixing Cultures: Coexistence or Confusion?” presented at the Italian Embassy to the Holy See, in Roma, on March 25.
Professor Khaled Fouad Allam, Algerian Muslim scholar, who also gave a talk in the book's presentation, pointed out that he has lived this encounter of cultures and identities himself, having married a Catholic woman. “The diversity of cultures, the social and democratic integration, the governance of this encounter,” Allam said, are three indications to consider in trying to understand this phenomenon, avoiding a “confusion of terms.” History has had various forms of confronting diversity. “The French method,” the scholar said, “is that of making-alike, while the Anglo-Saxon mode is that of the communitarian.” Today, we are called to find terms and political methods to facing diversity.
David Sassoli, a journalist from the RAI, also gave an address during the presentation, recalling that “the Christian world is the origin of mixed cultures” and that this is why “it offers deep indications on the path to be taken in light of the ultimate end of mankind, and that is evident in other faiths: unity.”
However, cultures are not monolithic blocks, but rather “uninterrupted processes of self-understanding and interchange of other cultures.”
Cardinal Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice (Italy), in his intervention highlighted that the problem “is not rejecting a process that, with the tranquility of all concerned, is not asking for the permission to occur; nor promoting the idea that we are all hybrids and that this is an advantage for everyone.” It fundamentally concerns an “evaluation of whether or not (and in what ways) the process of mixing races represents a possible contribution to the coexistence of peoples and cultures.” “The term 'meticciato' (mixing of races) – is not an indication of how to proceed, but rather an explanation of a fact that is before all our eyes. The idea came to me when I visited several Mexican cities and observing the Mexican people, I was inspired to talk about 'meticciato,' almost without knowing what it meant. Later I had to study and analyze it in greater detail. In this process, the focal point is that people 'make the mix of races,' it is not something abstract. Thus, the category of testimony seems to be the most authentic in this encounter between identities and cultures. It is in the testimony that each person goes out to encounter the other...Jesus Himself showed us this in His example of manifesting Himself – even on the Cross - and yet allowing us every freedom to respond or not.” (MT) (Agenzia Fides 26/3/2009)