When conflicts are not resolved but kept hidden or buried in the past, silence can lead to complicity in grave misdeeds and sins. Authentic reconciliation does not flee from conflict, but is achieved in conflict, resolving it through dialogue and open, honest and patient negotiation. Conflict between different groups “if it abstains from enmities and mutual hatred, gradually changes into an honest discussion of differences founded on a desire for justice”. 228PIUS XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno (15 May 1931): AAS 23 (1931), 213.
On numerous occasions, I have spoken of “a principle indispensable to the building of friendship in society: namely, that unity is greater than conflict… This is not to opt for a kind of syncretism, or for the absorption of one into the other, but rather for a resolution which takes place on a higher plane and preserves what is valid and useful on both sides”. 229Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013), 228: AAS 105 (2013), 1113. All of us know that “when we, as individuals and communities, learn to look beyond ourselves and our particular interests, then understanding and mutual commitment bear fruit… in a setting where conflicts, tensions and even groups once considered inimical can attain a multifaceted unity that gives rise to new life”. 230Meeting with the Civil Authorities, Civil Society and the Diplomatic Corps, Riga, Latvia (24 September 2018): L’Osservatore Romano, 24-25 September 2018, p. 7.