蜜桃交友

By Joseph Tulloch

Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Vatican鈥檚 Dicastery for Communication, addressed a symposium on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence on Friday.

At the panel discussion, which was jointly organised by the World Union of Catholic Women鈥檚 Organisations and the British Embassy to the Holy See, the Prefect emphasised the magnitude of the problem, and offered a personal reflection on how to respond to such evil.

Sexual violence and 'the destruction of humanity'

Dr Ruffini began by stressing the scale of the problem of conflict-related sexual violence, which, he said, 鈥渉as become a weapon for the destruction of humanity.鈥�

The UN, the Prefect noted, logged 3,293 incidents of such violence in 2021. Moreover, such cases are severely underreported 鈥� the UN estimates that, for each case it records, another 10 to 20 go unrecorded鈥� and so the real number is far higher, likely somewhere between 35,000 and 70,000. 

The NGO Gynécologie Sans Frontières, meanwhile, Dr Ruffini said, reports that most female migrant and refugee arriving in Europe have experienced sexual violence. 

Meeting with victims of sexual violence in DRC

Next, Dr Ruffini turned to consider the Pope鈥檚 meeting with victims of conflict-related sexual violence during his recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He dwelt in particular on the testimony of two women, Mukumbi Kamala and Emelda M'karhungulu, quoting at length their words to the Pope in their meeting with him. Their descriptions of the violence they underwent, he said, 鈥渟till resonate in my heart.鈥�

Faced with such terrible realities, Dr Ruffini suggested, the only appropriate response is the one given by the Pope, following his meeting with the abuse survivors: 鈥淟isten to the cry of their blood (cf. Gen 4:10), open your ears to the voice of God, who calls you to conversion, and to the voice of your conscience 鈥� no to violence, always and everywhere, with no 鈥榠fs鈥� or 鈥榖uts鈥� 鈥�.

Martin Buber and 鈥淲here are we?鈥�

Another theme of the Prefect鈥檚 address was the work of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber.

It is natural, he said, when faced with evils in the world, to ask ourselves 鈥淲here is God in all this?鈥�. We should, however, he stressed, also ask ourselves, as Buber says, 鈥淲here are we?鈥�

This is the question God asked Adam in the Garden of Eden, Buber writes, and, like Adam, we hide ourselves. We ignore the horrific realities in the world around us, or accept them as inevitable. But this can never be an acceptable response, Dr Ruffini emphasised, because 鈥淲e are all involved 鈥� We live in a time when we cannot say, 鈥淚 was not there, I did not know.鈥�

Thus, the Prefect concluded, it is essential that we become individuals 鈥渨ho know how to see evil, who know how to distinguish it, who know how to denounce it, to take it on and transform it with the force of goodness.鈥�

The role of faith actors

In remarks made at the beginning of the discussion, Chris Trott, the UK Ambassador to the Holy See, stressed the 鈥渃rucial" role that faith leaders can play in combatting sexual violence. 

Firstly, Ambassador Trott said, they can 鈥渄ismantle the harmful misinterpretations of religious texts used to justify sexual violence in conflict.鈥�

Secondly, 鈥渢hey, more than politicians, can speak to people鈥檚 consciences in demanding an end to conflict-related sexual violence, as well as to the stigma too often faced by survivors and their children.鈥� 

In this regard, the Ambassador highlighted the role played recently by Pope Francis, saying that his statements condemning sexual violence during his recent visit to the DRC were "incredibly powerful."