PEACE-MAKER
Last Dec. 16, our family once again observed the death anniversary of our beloved daughter, Katrina Casimira, whom we lovingly called KC. She would have been 34 years old this year but God summoned her back to His home in 2004.
We were nine years old when we lost our dearest mother, Casimira Claveria de Venecia; and our father, Judge Jose Ravago de Venecia Sr., when we were in our twenties, but no sorrow is as deep as losing a child.
It has been said that the natural order of things is that parents bring children into this world; they do not naturally see their children leave it.
Our wife Gina and we have since learned to live with the pain of losing her although the grief never really goes away. The anguish never really stops since we feel that part of us also died. But as years went by, we also learned to remember KC with joy rather than with sadness. We have been comforted by the fact she is now with God, in a place of everlasting peace and happiness.
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We also remember this month our country’s major victory in international diplomacy and our enshrined contribution in advancing the cause of global peace — the Interfaith Dialogue.
A Philippine-led initiative, it was approved by the U.N. General Assembly during the Christmas holidays in December 2005. Since then, not only the United Nations and individual governments but also civil society groupings have been holding these dialogues at national, regional, and international level.
Our country initiated at the U.N. in November 2004 the concept and practice of Interfaith Dialogue as a way of helping resolve politico-religious conflicts, strengthening the religious moderates, and isolating those who advocate terrorism and violent extremism in the name of religion.
To institutionalize it, we proposed the creation of an Interfaith Council in the U.N. or at least a “Unit” be established in the U.N. system whose specific responsibility would be to organize, coordinate, and oversee interfaith dialogues systematically, as well as to assess their effectiveness. We partially succeeded as there is now a “focal point” on Interfaith Dialogue in the office of the U.N. Secretary General.
In Jan. 2006, we organized a Global Interfaith Dialogue here in Manila, where leaders of various religions and faith-based organizations from the Asia Pacific region participated. Several incumbent and former heads of government and parliaments from Asia and Europe also addressed the conference. Among them were then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former President Fidel V. Ramos, former President Jose Ma. Aznar of Spain, former Prime Minister Wilfred Martens of Belgium, former Kjell Magne Bondevik of Norway, Italian Parliament President Ferdinando Casini, and Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of Pakistan.
Earlier, as then Speaker of the House of Representatives, we addressed the U.N. Security Council and travelled great distances —meeting with various political, parliamentary, and religious leaders and speaking at international conferences — to campaign and galvanize support for an Interfaith Dialogue.
In November 2003, during then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s state visit to Washington, we broached such idea to President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice when President Arroyo and we conferred with them at the Oval Office in the White House.
We also personally secured the support of our old friend Jean Ping, then president of the U.N. General Assembly. Jean Ping served his beloved country Gabon as minister of Foreign Affairs, chairman of the African Union Commission, and president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) when Gabon was an OPEC member.
We remember being received by then King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at the Royal Palace in Jeddah. The well-loved Saudi King reigned for 10 years, from 2005 until his death in 2015. Saudi Arabia is considered the leader of the Sunni Muslims.
We also met with religious and political leaders of Iran, which represents the Shia Muslims, to promote inter-religious, inter-cultural and inter-civilizational dialogue. In Tehran, we conferred with Presidents Mohammad Khatami, Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Mahmoud Amadinejad, Speakers of Parliament Nategh Nouri, Haddad Adel, Ali Larijani, and Deputy Speaker Aboutorabi Fard, among others. We also wrote Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran was the Philippines’ partner when we initiated the Interfaith Dialogue in the U.N., which was supported by around 50 other countries.
Our main argument for the Interfaith Dialogue rests on the principle that “there can be no peace between the great powers without peace between the major religions. And there can be no peace among the religions unless there is dialogue among the religions.”