The ethics of intercultural dialogue. Reconciliation discourse in John Paul II’s pontifical correspondence

This chapter focuses on the discourse of peace-building and reconciliation in John Paul II’s correspondence to marginalized groups and communities worldwide. The letters, addressed to war victims, refugees and prisoners, aimed to draw public attention to ongoing problems of injustice, violence and imbalance in different life domains. It will be shown, with the help of the Transformative Approach to Conflict, how the actors in John Paul II’s dialogic endeavours perform their self-/other-transformation via qualitative remodellings of their social and personal identities. By decomposing agonistic discourse practices, the interactants run dialogic strategies of respect to, solidarity and involvement with the discriminated parties. The lived human reciprocity, complementarity and uniqueness that is thereby construed generates the real ‘ethical spirit’ of linguistic communication.