September 13, 2004

A well deserved tribute

Source:

Editorial II

Only four years after his death, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, former Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Primate of Argentina, will receive a well deserved tribute that underlines his indefatigable work promoting the interreligious dialogue.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, together with the Evangelical Church of Germany, will unveil a replica of the commemorative mural that pays tribute to the victims of the holocaust. The memorial will be placed inside the Vaterunser Church, in the renewed city of Berlin.

This mural is a permanent symbol of the Christian- Jewish reconciliation, that Cardinal Quarracino promoted so intensely during his tenure as head of the Catholic Church. We must remember that the original version of the mural was located inside our Metropolitan Cathedral in April, 1997, following an idea of Baruj Tenembaum, the founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. The work has a moving remainder, as it includes pages of several prayer books which were rescued from the ruins of the Nazi extermination camps. Short before his death Monsignor Quarracino asked to be buried near this mural believing that, in this way, he could continue proclaiming the values of the interreligious fraternity.

In times when the fundamentalist intransigency seems to take hold of some hearts with its shuddering death message, it is fair to extol the memory of an Argentinian who tirelessly toiled in favor of the dialogue, as he had understood that it is the only way to make peace among nations a long lasting reality.

Translation: Nora Bellettieri