COEXISTENCE/ Diaz, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See: we all need bridges between diverse communities

Miguel H. Diaz, United States Ambassador to the Holy See, spoke at the Meeting at Rimini at a session dedicated to issues of identity and coexistence. Ilsussidiario.net interviewed him to develop certain ideas that came out of his speech and to talk with him about Benedict XVI and about Obama's politics.

Ambassador Diaz, in your speech you spoke of integration. Why is the U.S. experience important in this field?

I spoke of the principle underlying coexistence in the United States: E pluribus unum. In the U.S. we have always, throughout our history, welcomed a great diversity, and this has been a very positive factor, because it has given us the opportunity to enter into relationships with others and thus to understand them and live together. These things are very important today, not only for the United States but for the whole world, because we all need to build bridges between diverse communities.

Do you have a positive example of this coexistence to share with us?

Sure: the first, very first, is that of my family. My wife and I met at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. She was from the Midwest, but I came from Florida. In the family, we live an experience of rapport despite our diversity: our history, our precedents, our language. As you can see, my own story is a history of relationship in diversity.

Is this possible also at the social level, in the relationship between different groups and cultures? Can you give us other examples? You are an American Catholic with Cuban roots ...

My story in fact shows the great complexity of the American Church. The Catholic Church in the United States has a large number of Hispanics, Asians, Americans, Italians, African-Americans, Poles, and others. Thus we see that the principle of E pluribus unum is also the experience of the Church. One immediately perceives in U.S. society a great wealth and great potential, a society that has within itself the experiences of the Catholic Church and of other religions. These experiences help us to prop up the bridges which we need today.

What can prop up the bridges that are so necessary which you mention? The title of the Meeting speaks of the heart as the nature of all men ...

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