Words of Welcome by the Provincial of SLO at the meeting of JPIC in Nitra, March 31-April 04, 2008

Fr. Peter Dusicka SVD, Provincial

Dear Sisters and Confreres!

I am very happy to welcome you all to Nitra and to our province. We feel honoured to host the meeting of JPIC coordinators of our European Zone. If I am not mistaken, it is for the first time ever that this meeting is being held in Slovakia.
For some of you it may be also the first time ever to visit our country that suffered greatly for 40 years under communist government. Even though the communist regime tried to convince the international community that it was striving for justice and peace in the whole world, in reality it was suppressing political and civil rights and liberties of its citizens and persecuting Churches, members of religious congregations and believers.
Just shortly after the communist took over in former Czechoslovakia, in 1950 all male religious congregations and orders were banned, their property confiscated, their members taken to camps of forced labour and some of them even sentenced to years of imprisonment. This was also the fate of our congregation, our houses and our confreres. This mission house in Nitra that was built by our congregation in 1928 and served as a centre of missionary animation and formation of missionaries for the whole country was taken away and transformed into the Faculty of Mechanisation of the University of Agriculture.
This period lasted 40 years during which we prayed to God that justice and freedom would be restored. God heard our prayers and we were able to get back at least some of our property and start anew.
Our looking into these last 60 years of our recent history is not, however, marked by any kind resentment. We understand this period as a time of trial that strengthened our faith and our fidelity.
Now the situation has changed. We are living in a democratic, free-market society. But we can observe and experience more than ever that the society, which became global is far from the image of the Kingdom of God presented in the Bible.
So, this “uphill task” – as one of our missionaries in Kenya, Fr. Martin Cingel, who survived the recent outburst of violence in this “oasis of peace” – calls it, this uphill task of working for peace and justice must continue.
Yesterday we closed the Octave of Easter. During this Octave we got accustomed through the word of liturgy to the Easter greeting of the Risen Lord: “Peace be with you”. This is the greeting of Jesus through which he addressed his disciples.
It is interesting that also the Muslim cultures use a greeting with the connotation of peace: “As-Salāmu ‘Alaykum”, which means: “Peace be upon you”. It is similar to the Hebrew greeting of “Shalom aleichem”.
Since the topic of this JPIC meeting is dialogue with the Islam, I would dare to use this greeting and on behalf of all members of our pProvince wish you a peaceful stay and a fruitful meeting and welcome you all: “The peace of the Lord be with you – As-Salamu ‘Alaykum.