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Dialogue across difference is essential to democracy

In an age of division, the Federal Parliamentary Interfaith Breakfast offers a space for respectful dialogue, says ACU Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Zlatko Skrbis.

For anyone who is even mildly engaged in politics and social issues, it’s hard to escape the sense that polarisation poses a harmful threat to our society. The divide seems to deepen daily – between cultures, between religious groups, between political tribes, even between neighbours.

The news media thrives on opinions, negativity and conflict. Algorithms amplify outrage over understanding. Public discourse too often feels like a zero-sum game, where compromise is seen as a sign of weakness or self-doubt.

The data tells part of the story. Research shows that social and political polarisation has reached levels not seen in generations. But the numbers alone can’t capture what many of us feel: a sense that we’re losing the capacity to talk to people who see the world differently, to find common ground with those whose beliefs and perspectives challenge our own.

For more than a decade, Australian Catholic University (ACU) has hosted an annual event that aims to create a space for open, respectful dialogue. Our Federal Parliamentary Interfaith Breakfast brings together religious leaders, parliamentarians and community representatives in the spirit of tolerance and mutual respect.

Interfaith breakfasts of this type exist around the world, involving both politicians and leaders of faith communities. The format is deliberately simple: break bread together, listen to the perspectives being offered, share something from your own tradition, and most importantly, talk to a stranger at your table. Introduce yourself. Explore differences. Embrace similarities. Trust in the process of listening and dialogue.

In the Catholic context, the foundation of such events lies in a document many people have never heard of – one that was proclaimed 60 years ago by Pope Paul VI.

Nostra Aetate – the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions – transformed relations between Catholic communities and communities of other faiths. In spare, careful prose, it laid out a vision that the Church and its followers should engage other faiths not with suspicion or superiority, but with sincere reverence. It reaffirmed the Church’s rejection of all forms of hatred and persecution, exhorting Catholics to instead pursue “dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love, and in witness to the Christian faith and life”.

This idea didn’t emerge from a position of weakness or self-doubt. As Pope Leo observed last month, at a commemoration of the 60^th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, authentic dialogue begins “in conviction – in the deep roots of our own belief that give us the strength to reach out to others in love”.

This is the paradox at the heart of Nostra Aetate: by standing firmly within our own traditions, we become capable of genuine encounter with others. For when you know who you are, you can afford to be generous. When your foundations are secure, you can build bridges.

Sixty years on, this wisdom feels urgently relevant. The erosion of dialogue we’ve seen in recent times threatens more than civility. It strikes at the foundations of democracy itself.

One of the great cornerstones of a healthy democracy is the capacity of individuals and groups to come together and share perspectives, to discuss their aspirations for the future of their communities. To deliberate across disagreement, and to do so in good faith, without retreating from difficult conversations or condemning those with different views.  

Let me draw upon a quote commonly attributed to St Thomas Aquinas, that we “must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have laboured in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.”

This reflects the humility required to acknowledge that people of different beliefs and perspectives are seeking answers just as we are. It requires the realisation that what unites humanity – our common origin and shared destiny – runs deeper than what divides us.

These ideas demand something that most of us find difficult: holding fast to our deepest values and beliefs while remaining genuinely open to learning from those who believe differently. As Pope Leo put it in his address, dialogue is “not a tactic or a tool, but a way of life – a journey of the heart that transforms everyone involved, the one who listens and the one who speaks”.

Make no mistake: dialogue is not a cure-all. Nor does it guarantee agreement. It offers something that is perhaps more valuable: it reminds us that the person across the table, however different their views, shares our humanity.

In an age when this basic recognition seems increasingly rare, creating spaces for this genuine encounter – spaces like ACU’s interfaith breakfast – seems more important than ever.

The alternative is a society where we only engage with those we agree with. And that’s no society at all.

ACU’s 2025 Federal Parliamentary Interfaith Breakfast will be held on Tuesday 25 November at Parliament House, Canberra.

This article is was originally published by The Catholic Weekly and is part of the Vice Chancellor’s Blog, which highlights stories, insights and perspectives from across the university.