Vatican Message to Buddhists on Vesakh

(March 31, 2011) The Vatican has called for greater cooperation between Christians and Buddhists to strengthen the relationship between the communities in the path of the pursuit of authentic peace, a commitment to seek truth and freedom. The call came in a message the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter Religious Dialogue released on Thursday, to wish Buddhists around the world on the occasion of their feast of Vasakh, which falls this year on the 17^th of May Tuesday. Vesakh commemorates the principal events in the life of Buddhism’s founder Gautama Buddha. The Pontifical Council’s message pointed out that all persons have a natural duty to seek truth, to follow it and freely to live their lives in accordance with it. All persons have a natural duty to seek truth, to follow it and freely to live their lives in accordance with it. In today’s world, the message said, marked by forms of secularism and fundamentalism that are often inimical to true freedom and spiritual values, interreligious dialogue can be the alternative choice by which we find the “golden way” to live in peace and work together for the good of all. The message referred to the call of Pope Benedict XVI’ for dialogue between the followers of the different religions, as an important means of cooperating with all religious communities for the common good. Such dialogue is also a powerful stimulus to respect for the fundamental human rights of freedom of conscience and freedom of worship. Wherever religious freedom is effectively acknowledged, the dignity of the human person is respected and enhanced. The Pontifical Council hoped that the celebration of Vesakh will be a source of spiritual enrichment and an occasion to take up anew the quest of truth and goodness, to show compassion to all who suffer, and to strive to live together in harmony.