Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue greets Buddhists for Vesakh
April 24, 2014: The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue has released a
Message on Thursday, addressed to Buddhists as they prepare to mark the feast of Vesakh,
which is the most important of the Buddhist festivals and is celebrated on the full
moon in May. It celebrates the Buddha's birthday, and, for some Buddhists, it also
marks the Buddha’s enlightenment as prince Siddhartha Gautama and his death. The theme
of the Message is Buddhists and Christians: together fostering fraternity.
Drawing
inspiration from Pope Francis’ Message for the World Day of Peace 2014, entitled Fraternity,
the Foundation and Pathway to Peace, which says “fraternity is an essential human
quality, for we are relational beings. And without fraternity it is impossible to
build a just society and a solid and lasting peace…”
The message states that
as Buddhists and Christians, we live in a world all too often torn apart by oppression,
selfishness, rivalry, violence and religious fundamentalism. But at the same time
our world today is witnessing a growing sense of our common humanity and a global
quest for a more just, peaceful and fraternal world. The message emphasises interreligious
dialogue which will contribute, in the recognition of the fundamental principles of
universal ethics, to fostering a renewed and deepened sense of unity and fraternity
among all the members of the human family.
Below, the text of the Message:
Buddhists and Christians: Together Fostering Fraternity MESSAGE
FOR THE FEAST OF VESAKH 2014 Vatican City
Dear Buddhist Friends, 1.
In the name of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, we wish to once
again extend to all of you, throughout the world, our heartfelt best wishes on the
occasion of Vesakh. 2. Our cordial greetings this year are inspired by Pope Francis’
Message for the World Day of Peace 2014, entitled Fraternity, the Foundation and Pathway
to Peace. There, Pope Francis observes that “fraternity is an essential human quality,
for we are relational beings. A lively awareness of our relatedness helps us to look
upon and to treat each person as a true sister or brother; without fraternity it is
impossible to build a just society and a solid and lasting peace…” (n. 1). 3. Dear
friends, your religious tradition inspires the conviction that friendly relations,
dialogue, the sharing of gifts, and the respectful and harmonious exchange of views
lead to attitudes of kindness and love which in turn generate authentic and fraternal
relationships. You are also convinced that the root of all evil is the ignorance and
misunderstanding born of greed and hatred, which in turn destroy the bonds of fraternity.
Unfortunately, “daily acts of selfishness, which are at the root of so many wars and
so much injustice”, prevent us from seeing others “as beings made for reciprocity,
for communion and self-giving” (Message for World Day of Peace 2014, n. 2). Such selfishness
inevitably leads to seeing others as a threat. 4. As Buddhists and Christians,
we live in a world all too often torn apart by oppression, selfishness, tribalism,
ethnic rivalry, violence and religious fundamentalism, a world where the “other” is
treated as an inferior, a non-person, or someone to be feared and eliminated if possible.
Yet, we are called, in a spirit of cooperation with other pilgrims and with people
of good will, to respect and to defend our shared humanity in a variety of socio-economic,
political and religious contexts. Drawing upon our different religious convictions,
we are called especially to be outspoken in denouncing all those social ills which
damage fraternity; to be healers who enable others to grow in selfless generosity,
and to be reconcilers who break down the walls of division and foster genuine brotherhood
between individuals and groups in society. 5. Our world today is witnessing a growing
sense of our common humanity and a global quest for a more just, peaceful and fraternal
world. But the fulfilment of these hopes depends on a recognition of universal values.
We hope that interreligious dialogue will contribute, in the recognition of the fundamental
principles of universal ethics, to fostering a renewed and deepened sense of unity
and fraternity among all the members of the human family. Indeed, “each one of us
is called to be an artisan of peace, by uniting and not dividing, by extinguishing
hatred and not holding on to it, by opening paths to dialogue and not by constructing
new walls! Let us dialogue and meet each other in order to establish a culture of
dialogue in the world, a culture of encounter!” (Pope Francis, To Participants in
the International Meeting for Peace, Sponsored by the Community of "Sant' Egidio",
30 September 2013). 6. Dear friends, to build a world of fraternity, it is vitally
important that we join forces to educate people, particularly the young, to seek fraternity,
to live in fraternity and to dare to build fraternity. We pray that your celebration
of Vesakh will be an occasion to rediscover and promote fraternity anew, especially
in our divided societies. Once again allow us to express our heartfelt greetings
and to wish all of you a Happy Feast of Vesakh.