DiReSoM

by Luigi Mariano Guzzo
One of the most iconic photos of interreligious dialogue in the time of Covid-19 was published by CNN on March 26, 2020 “Muslim and Jewish paramedics pause to pray together”. Jewish paramedic Avraham Mintz prays facing Jerusalem while Muslim paramedic Zoher Abu Jama prays facing Mecca, each as an individual but together in the same kind of action. In my opinion, this photo represents how religious differences can be overcome and transformed into a possible helpful tool to manage contemporary and global crisis, such this pandemic is. Coronavirus Emergency has indiscriminately crossed national borders, regardless of a people’s religion or culture: but it has also inspired moments of interfaith unity, connecting believers (and non-believers) in the same battle. In this respect, interreligious dialogue seems actually to be a tool to face the Coronavirus Emergency, so much that even Wikipedia has made a page about it, which is constantly being updated.

by Maria Luisa Lo Giacco
The article is focused on a research in which the DiReSom research group[1] is involved since the beginning of the Covid-19 emergency. The title of the paper is: “The dialogue among states and religious groups” and I’ll examine this topic in three steps; then, I’ll try to imagine how the dialogue could be the method for the future relationships, when states and religions will probably afford other situations of emergency.

by Angela Patrizia Tavani
In this frenetic succession of regulatory provisions in Italy, it seems that in a single stroke Covid 19 has deeply compressed religious freedom, reducing it almost to an abstraction, when the Catholic Church (as well as other religious confessions) and citizens- Catholic faithful have had to observe the provisions of the Italian State, with evident sacrifice of their fundamental rights of religious freedom and freedom of worship, for the benefit of the protection of the right to health and life, a priority in the acute phase of the pandemic.

by Enrica Martinelli
During the first lockdown imposed, in March, by the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic, resistances, or even actual oppositions, were observed in Israel – and in the United States of America – by numerous communities of ultra-Orthodox Jews, who refused to obey government regulations and to follow the instructions of the health authorities.

by Marco Gensini, Roberto Minganti, Enza Pellecchia

All Buddhist traditions, including that of the Soka Gakkai, derive from the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni. After enlightening himself to the Mystic Law, Shakyamuni decided to share this wisdom with all people. The central message of his teachings – set forth definitively in the Lotus Sutra – can be summarized in the principle that Buddhahood is a condition of absolute happiness inherent in every living being. Soka Gakkai Buddhism is based on the teachings of The Buddha Nichiren Daishonin (1222-1282), and consists of the daily recitation of “Nam-myoho-renge- kyo” (the Mystic Law) and the reading of the Hoben and Juryo chapters of the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra states that human beings – regardless of gender, individual abilities and social condition – are all potentially Buddha, endowed with compassion, wisdom and courage and therefore worthy of the utmost respect.

by Rosa Geraci

The Coronavirus emergency has led the Government and local authorities to adopt measures restricting religious freedom. The Ordinances and Decree-Laws of recent weeks have actually ordered the suspension of collective rites and worship and the limitation of access to sacred places, in order to deal with the emergency situation and protect the health of citizens. The state of major emergency has forced the Government to take some specific measures, which obviously must be proportional and appropriate to the risk, including the suspension of civil and religious ceremonies and the limitation on entering places of worship.

by Caterina Gagliardi

The Covid-19 approach to the health emergency of Muslim countries may prove to be of considerable interest if one considers their specific social and legal connotations. For this reason, even though without any pretension of exhaustiveness, the following analysis proposes, on the one side, to understand to what extent the governmental dynamics of prevention of contagion – some of which are still in progress – have affected the systems of guarantee of liberties and fundamental rights; on the other side, it is intended to verify what has been the role of the Islamic religion in the process of adoption of the institutional responses to the crisis.