Archbishop Gallagher: ‘Dialogue makes cooperation possible'

Summary

On Monday, 7 September, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, addressed the opening of a four-day seminar in Assisi for theology professors and pastoral assistants from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. The seminar focuses on St Francis and paths of reconciliation during commemorations of the 800th anniversary of his death. Speaking in the Sala della Conciliazione, Gallagher used the history of relations between the Holy See and Italy to emphasize the value of dialogue. He recalled a 1926 meeting between Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, representing the pope, and Italian Minister of Public Education Pietro Fedele. According to the article, that encounter contributed to negotiations that resulted in the Lateran Pacts of 1929. Gallagher said agreements require a willingness to meet and that gestures of rapprochement must become “just and lasting rules.” He also referred to the 1984 revision of the Concordat, emphasizing that church and state can remain independent while cooperating for the common good. Gallagher argued that genuine dialogue does not erase differences but enables them to coexist through loyal cooperation. He concluded by citing St Francis’s greeting, “May the Lord give you peace,” and said diplomacy cannot create peace by itself but can help establish the conditions in which peace takes root.