Vatican Marks End of Ramadan with Message for Muslims
(19 Sept 08 - RV) The Vatican has released a message marking the Muslim feast of
‘Id al-Fitr” which closes the month Ramadan.
Written
by President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious dialogue, French Cardinal
Jean Louis Tauran, this years message is about Christians and Muslims working together
for the dignity of the Family. Below we publish the entire text:
Dear Muslim
friends,
1. As the end of the month of Ramadan approaches, and following
a now well-established tradition, I am pleased to send you the best wishes of the
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. During this month Christians close
to you have shared your reflections and your family celebrations; dialogue and friendship
have been strengthened. Praise be to God!
2. As in the past, this friendly
rendez-vous also gives us an opportunity to reflect together on a mutually
topical subject which will enrich our exchange and help us to get to know each other
better, in our shared values as well as in our differences. This year we would like
to propose the subject of the family.
3. One of the documents of the Second
Council Vatican, Gaudium et Spes, which deals with the Church in the modern
world, states: ‘The well-being of the individual person and of human and Christian
society is intimately linked with the healthy condition of that community produced
by marriage and family. Hence Christians and all men who hold this community in high
esteem sincerely rejoice in the various ways by which men today find help in fostering
this community of love and perfecting its life, and by which parents are assisted
in their lofty calling. Those who rejoice in such aids look for additional benefits
from them and labour to bring them about.’ (n. 47)
4. These words give
us an opportune reminder that the development of both the human person and of society
depends largely on the healthiness of the family! How many people carry, sometimes
for the whole of their life, the weight of the wounds of a difficult or dramatic family
background? How many men and women now in the abyss of drugs or violence are vainly
seeking to make up for a traumatic childhood? Christians and Muslims can and must
work together to safeguard the dignity of the family, today and in the future.
5.
Given the high esteem in which both Muslims and Christians hold the family, we have
already had many occasions, from the local to the international level, to work together
in this field. The family, that place where love and life, respect for the other and
hospitality are encountered and transmitted, is truly the ‘fundamental cell of society.’
6.
Muslims and Christians must never hesitate, not only to come to the aid of families
in difficulty, but also to collaborate with all those who support the stability of
the family as an institution and the exercise of parental responsibility, in particular
in the field of education. I need onlyremind you that the family
is the first school in which one learns respect for others, mindful of the identity
and the difference of each one. Interreligious dialogue and the exercise of citizenship
cannot but benefit from this.
7. Dear friends, now that your fast comes
to an end, I hope that you, with your families and those close to you, purified and
renewed by those practices dear to your religion, may know serenity and prosperity
in your life! May Almighty God fill you with His Mercy and Peace!