Toward a theology “from the Mediterranean”: New manifesto released

Released on the second day of Pope Francis' Apostolic Journey to Marseille, a new document aims to respond to the "problematics and peculiarities” of the Mediterranean context.

By Fr. Paul Samasumo in Marseille, and Joseph Tulloch

“For a theology from the Mediterranean”.

That’s the title of a manifesto released today in Marseille, written collaboratively by members of academic institutes from across the region - from France, Egypt, Croatia, Lebanon, Italy, Spain, and Turkey.

Vatican News’ Fr Paul Samasumo is in Marseille to cover the Pope’s visit, and he spoke to Fr Patrice Chocholski, Director of the Catholic Insititute of the Mediterranean, and one of the organisers of the new document.

Listen to our interview with Fr Patrice Chocholski

The manifesto, Fr Chocholski explained, was produced by a “network constituted by networks from the Mediterranean”. Theological networks in various Mediterranean countries, that is, which had previously been meeting locally, came together to exchange ideas and listen to one another.

It was very important to the participants in these meetings, Fr Chocholski stressed, that theirs “would not be an office theology”, written from an armchair. It would, rather, be a response to the “problematics” and “peculiarities” of each of the participants' countries, produced by theologians committed to “the people of the streets, some of them [working] with migrants too.”

A further crucial aspect of the Manifesto, Fr Chocholski stressed, was that it was written collaboratively, in dialogue.

“God is dialogue,” he said, “and dialogue is the place of God, […] the dialogical God, the Trinitarian God. I am in presence of Him when I dialogue with anybody in a true and authentic way.”