Look beyond specific religions, says Indian prelate

(Januarey 11, 2011) An Indian archbishop has urged leaders of various religions to look beyond their communities and promote the human family. Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati, Assam, told a recent meeting in Pune, western India that “behind every civilization there is a unifying vision of reality and in our case, it is a spiritual vision, and it is the most important element in a culture.”
About 100 representatives of various religions and NGOs attended the Jan. 6-8 program that addressed the theme, ‘Indian pluralism and solidarity for a just humanity.” The Salesian Archbishop said “God reveals himself in cultures and communities, when they draw closer to each other as though in a pre-ordained fashion. All our destinies are interwoven and until the last of us has lived, the significance of the first cannot be finally clear,” he told Buddhists, Christians Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs and agnostics.
Archbishop Menamparampil, who initiated an inter-religious peace forum in the strife-torn northeastern India, cited the examples of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa of Kolkata, and Pope John Paul II, saying they represented the entire humanity, despite their special commitment to their own communities.
He said “Mother Teresa touched the conscience of the world with her powerful witness of love, without a single word of rebuke”. The meeting was organised by the Ishvani Kendra, a center for missiology and communication managed by the Divine Word congregation..