Rome, 18 March 2014: Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the
Oriental Churches, hoped for a peaceful co-existence of people of various religious
faith in the middle east. He was speaking at a roundtable held on Tuesday in Rome,
on the 10th anniversary of the Amman Message. Amman message was a statement
issued on 9 November 2004 by King Abdullah II of Jordan, who urged tolerance and unity
in the Islamic world.
The Cardinal said what worries most the Oriental Churches
and all the friends of the East, with specific references of what is happening there.
He cited the examples of the terrible genocide in Rwanda, the untold suffering and
cruelty in Syria, in other areas of the Middle East and Nigeria.
Cardinal
Sandri recalled his own experience at the reopening of the Syrian Catholic cathedral
in Baghdad, where two years earlier, 52 people gathered in prayer were brutally killed.
But he said, the reopening ceremony was attended, in addition to the political authorities,
two senior members of the local Sunni and Shiite Islam renouncing the killing saying
that the murderers could not be said to be "a follower of the Prophet". These are,
he said, signals that the small seed that can generate new hope for the future.
The
Cardinal also highlighted what the Congregation for the Oriental Churches seeks to
achieve anywhere in the territories under its jurisdiction and in Rome. In Rome it
brings together young students from all over the eastern region and also from other
Christian churches, because they prepare the best possible future commitments through
scholarships, and are trained together for mutual co-existence and co-operation in
accordance with the principles of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue indicated
by the Second Vatican Council, respecting differences but also having at heart the
common good to be realized.
He also cited the Pontifical Institute for Arabic
and Islamic Studies (PISAI). The realities of schools operating in the Middle East
embody and sustain a Christian-Muslim dialogue in preparing cultural and everyday
life. When referring to the Holy Land, which Francis Pope is scheduled to visit in
May, he said there was at least one well-known example of a school where Christians
(Catholic and Orthodox), Jews and Muslims studied together. It was the "Terra Sancta
College" in Jerusalem, now a college in the heart of the New Town.
Last June,
in the presence of His Majesty King Abdullah II, I also attended the University of
Madaba, dependent on the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and started with a special
support of Pope Benedict during his apostolic journey. All these, he said give wings
of hope for the people. They ask children and young Jews, Christians and Muslims in
the Holy Land go to school together thinking of a bright future that we do not have
the right to ignore. These are the paths of peace that the Lord has already opened
up because the world can always benefit from the contribution of the East in the edification
of the common home of humanity. Source: VR Sedoc