Pope John Paul II drew great attention when he convened world religious leaders in Assisi, Italy, in 1986 and 2002 to pray for peace. Less attention is being paid, however, to an equally significant gathering of world religious leaders this week in Naples, Italy. The community of Sant'Egidio, based in Rome, has organized an summit of major religious leaders from around the world. After celebrating a Mass in Naples, Pope Benedict XVI gathered for lunch with quite a significant group of religious leaders, including Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, Methodist Rev. Samuel Kobia (Secretary General of the World Council of Churches), and Muslim scholar Ezzedine Ibrahim of the United Arab Emirates. Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist leaders were also present. At a time when some people feel the Catholic Church is doing less to promote ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, the significance of this gathering cannot be ignored.
We would all do well to mirror such high-level summits on local levels, initiating or continuing dialogue among Christians of all denominations as well as with the other major world religions. Jesus spent the majority of his public ministry in dialogue - speaking with people about the reign of God - and not just with the Jews of his own community. And when he did go off by himself, it was to pray - to dialogue with his Father. How can we imitate Jesus?
1 comment:
We have a problem in todays world. Instead of valuing discussion, sharing, dialogue...we value our own self opinion. We don't want to hear what others have to say...if they believe different than us than we want nothing to do with them. We are so seperated as a society because of our seperations due to religion, politics, ethnic groups, etc....We have lost what it means to value other beliefs, share our common ground, and work towards unity. Hate, discrimination,and wars are all caused by our inability to dialogue with one another
A meeting of the worlds religions should be a big story. But instead our society would rather focus on what breaks people apart not what brings them together. If only we could once again learn from each other,,,our world would be a much more peaceful place!
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