In a message sent to the Chaldean Patriarch, Emmanuel Delly, Cardinal Angelo Scola wrote: ‘I want to express to you and the martyred Christian community of Iraq my strongly felt participation in the tearing pain caused by the tragic death of H.E. Msgr. Paulos Faraj Rahho. The witness of martyrdom that the Christians of this troubled country are offering represents a powerful call for all our Churches. It is a peremptory invitation to all Christians to follow Jesus Christ, our Easter, with decisiveness’. Witness. That of Msgr. Rahlo and that of thousands and thousands of our Iraqi brothers and sisters. But, in essential terms, the witness that all Christians are called to because of their very faith in Jesus. Today, it is necessary to discover the profound contents of the category of witness, which is also an indispensable method for dialogue with Islam.
 

In these pages the reflection on Witness continues. In the pages of the Protestant theologian Leuba the nature of the profession of faith is illuminated and the text by Cardinal Ratzinger points out that faith ‘requires constantly renewed reflection and witness’.
Lastly a short page by St. Francis, presented by Msgr. Paul Hinder, helps us to understand the relationship between witness and mission
 

The heart of the Mediterranean is an enchanting and suffering island. Cyprus can boast a history that goes back thousands of years as well as a very ancient and flourishing Church; it is a member to the full of the European Union, its institutions are strong, and its economy is well based. But there is a wound that continues to bleed.
 

The new capital of the Chaldeans is Detroit, Michigan. After fleeing in thousands from an Iraq in flames many Christians have managed to overcome frontiers and barriers and put down new roots in the land of America. But this is only the last chapter of an authentic diaspora: from the lands of the East, Christians of every rite have emigrated to the West.

Essays, analyses and testimonies from various countries and on various subjects. In this issue: three scholars explore the famous ‘Letter of the 138’; Christian and Islamic mysticism as a terrain of dialogue; Medieval Muslim exegetes interpret the precept ‘no obligation in the Faith’; plurality in Islam; and the personality of a rather singular Franciscan.

The great Girard on Clausewitz; the decline and vitality of the Church; the Brussels Commission and the dossier on religions; the activism of European judges; how Christians can escape the trap of Iraq; at the sources of human action; a new idea of citizenship; and the utility of religion. To end this section a look at the cinema of the season.