Friday, June 26, 2015

Constructive Dialogue In Society


Obstacles that prevent communication are many. In the Peace Weekly Column, the journalist shows how we have  a lack of communication both in government and in the church and attributes the difficulty to either incompetence or pride.

He doesn't want to blame but only to speak out about the lack of communication in our society which he compares to poison mushrooms that continue to spread. Communication fails because of lack of contact but this can be remedied by contact but when we have contact and fail to communicate he sees the reason either in incompetency or pride.

Pride is one of the capital sins; not only concerned about oneself but also looks down on the other. With a proud individual we will not have communication:a change of heart is required. "Have the same attitude toward all. Put away ambitious thoughts and associate with those who are lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation" (St. Paul, Romans 12:16).    In a democracy the voice of the people in most cases should  be seen as the voice of God. When pride is the rule this system suffers.  

When we are dealing with incompetency we need the humility to acknowledge this and make the efforts to acquire the knowledge and competency or the humility of giving the position to others with more ability.  

Communication within society and within the church is an important issue. Pope Francis would like to see a culture of encounter. We know that he speaks often of dialogue but there are many who  do not care for what is involved. In a recent talk to the Brazilian leaders he said: " I consider essential for facing the present moment: constructive dialogue. Between selfish indifference and violent protest there is always another possible option: that of dialogue. Dialogue between generations, dialogue with the people, because we are all people, the capacity to give and receive, while remaining open to the truth. A country grows when constructive dialogue occurs between its many rich cultural components: popular culture, university culture, youth culture, art, technology, economic culture, family culture and media culture, when they are in dialogue with each other."                         

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