Professor Andrea Bizzozero, who teaches modern and contemporary history and philosophy at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Italy, made the remarks at the second international academic conference titled “A Bridge Between Worlds, Building Peace.”
The event was held on Thursday, organized by the Office of Religions and Denominations of the International and Communications Department of Islamic Seminaries, in cooperation with the Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute, Jamiat al-Zahra Seminary, and the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Vatican.
Pointing out that religion has at times been turned into a tool to justify war and power-seeking, Professor Bizzozero stressed the necessity of re-examining the effectiveness of religions in the current era.
“The dominance of ‘calculative rationality’ and the technological paradigm has paved the way for injustice, structural selfishness, and the marginalization of social solidarity,” he stated.
Drawing on the views of Pope Francis, the university professor cautioned that a society organized around self-centeredness and personal gain gradually loses its social cohesion, moving toward what Thomas Hobbes described as a “state of war of all against all.”
“Fear of the other, hegemonic ambition, and the abuse of power are the primary roots of conflicts. In such a context, the responsibility of religious leaders to defend human dignity and our common home is more critical than ever,” he added.
Citing Pope Francis’s documents, including the “Document on Human Fraternity” (2019), the Italian thinker identified fraternity as the fundamental and lost principle of lasting peace. According to him, only by embracing awareness and realizing genuine fraternity can one move beyond selfishness and redefine justice and peace at both the individual and political levels.
