Pope Speaks on Interreligious Dialogue

(18 Apr 08 - RV) Pope Benedict continued his Apostolic journey to the United States yesterday with a visit to the Pope John Paul II Cultural Centre which promotes interreligous dialogue.  
This institution reminds us of this nation’s conviction that all people should be free to pursue happiness in a way consonant with their nature as creatures endowed with reason and free will. Those were the words of Pope Benedict XVI about the Pope John Paul II Cultural Centre which works to promote interreligious dialogue.

Speaking before representatives from the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddist and Jain communities the Holy Father praised the United States long history of cooperation between different religions in many spheres of life.

Interreligious prayer services during the national feast of Thanksgiving, joint initiatives in charitable activities, a shared voice on important public issues: these are some ways in which members of different religions come together to enhance mutual understanding and promote the common good. I encourage all religious groups in America to persevere in their collaboration and thus enrich public life with the spiritual values that motivate your action in the world.

 The Pope then turned to the subject of religious freedom stressing that being able to practice ones faith is a basic right. 
May others take heart from your experience, realizing that a united society can indeed arise from a plurality of peoples – “E pluribus unum”: “out of many, one” – provided that all recognize religious liberty as a basic civil right (cf. Dignitatis Humanae, 2).  
Pope Benedict added that religious communities had made an enormous contribution to civil society in the form of faith based schools and noted the great responsibility religious leaders have to imbue society with a respect of human life and dignity .

The Pope also noted the growing interest among governments to sponsor initiatives to promote intereligious and intercultural dialogue.

“These are praiseworthy initiatives. At the same time, religious freedom, interreligious dialogue and faith-based education aim at something more than a consensus regarding ways to implement practical strategies for advancing peace. The broader purpose of dialogue is to discover the truth.

 

 
During the visit the Holy Father was presented with 5 gifts of peace from each of the communities represented.

Over the course of his Apostolic journey Pope Benedict has spoken repeatedly on issue of clerical sexual abuse, and on Thursday morning at a Mass at Washington’s National Park Stadium, he said saying «no words of his could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse.

Later on Thursday in the chapel at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, the Holy Father accompanied by the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, met privately with a group of people who were sexually abused by members of the clergy. They prayed with him and afterwards the Pope listened to their personal accounts and offered them words of encouragement and hope.

Pope Benedict assured them of his prayers for their intentions, for their families, and for all victims of sexual abuse.