(19 Mar 09 - RV) Pope Benedict Discourse 4 to the Muslim Community in Cameroon My
Dear Friends, Grateful for this opportunity to meet representatives of the Muslim
community in Cameroon, I express my heartfelt thanks to Mr Amadou Bello for his kind
words of greeting extended to me on your behalf. Our encounter is a vivid sign of
the desire we share with all people of good will – in Cameroon, throughout Africa
and across the globe – to seek opportunities to exchange ideas about how religion
makes an essential contribution to our understanding of culture and the world, and
to the peaceful coexistence of all the members of the human family. Initiatives in
Cameroon, such as the Association Camerounaise pour le Dialogue Interreligieux,
illustrate how such dialogue enhances mutual understanding and assists in the building
up of a stable and just political order. Cameroon is home to thousands of Christians
and Muslims, who often live, work and worship in the same neighbourhood. Both believe
in one, merciful God who on the last day will judge mankind (cf. Lumen Gentium,
16). Together they bear witness to the fundamental values of family, social responsibility,
obedience to God’s law and loving concern for the sick and suffering. By patterning
their lives on these virtues and teaching them to the young, Christians and Muslims
not only show how they foster the full development of the human person, but also how
they forge bonds of solidarity with one’s neighbours and advance the common good. My
friends, I believe a particularly urgent task of religion today is to unveil the vast
potential of human reason, which is itself God’s gift and which is elevated by revelation
and faith. Belief in the one God, far from stunting our capacity to understand ourselves
and the world, broadens it. Far from setting us against the world, it commits us
to it. We are called to help others see the subtle traces and mysterious presence
of God in the world which he has marvellously created and continually sustains with
his ineffable and all-embracing love. Although his infinite glory can never be directly
grasped by our finite minds in this life, we nonetheless catch glimpses of it in the
beauty that surrounds us. When men and women allow the magnificent order of the world
and the splendour of human dignity to illumine their minds, they discover that what
is “reasonable” extends far beyond what mathematics can calculate, logic can deduce
and scientific experimentation can demonstrate; it includes the goodness and innate
attractiveness of upright and ethical living made known to us in the very language
of creation. This insight prompts us to seek all that is right and just, to step
outside the restricted sphere of our own self-interest and act for the good of others.
Genuine religion thus widens the horizon of human understanding and stands at the
base of any authentically human culture. It rejects all forms of violence and totalitarianism:
not only on principles of faith, but also of right reason. Indeed, religion and reason
mutually reinforce one another since religion is purified and structured by reason,
and reason’s full potential is unleashed by revelation and faith. I therefore
encourage you, my dear Muslim friends, to imbue society with the values that emerge
from this perspective and elevate human culture, as we work together to build a civilization
of love. May the enthusiastic cooperation of Muslims, Catholics and other Christians
in Cameroon be a beacon to other African nations of the enormous potential of an interreligious
commitment to peace, justice and the common good! With these sentiments,
I once again express my gratitude for this auspicious occasion to meet you during
my visit to Cameroon. I thank Almighty God for the blessings he has bestowed upon
you and your fellow citizens, and I pray that the links that bind Christians and Muslims
in their profound reverence for the one God will continue to grow stronger, so that
they will reflect more clearly the wisdom of the Almighty, who enlightens the hearts
of all mankind.