Pope hires Pakistani lay woman’s service for dialogue with Muslims

(September 21, 2012) A Pakistani Catholic laywoman is among six new consultors that Pope Benedict XVI appointed on Friday to a Vatican department in charge of relations with Muslims. Ms. Romana Bashir, the head of the Christian Study Centre of the Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, has been nominated consultor to the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims, a department of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue (PCID). Along with her are three priests and two lay people. They are Fr. Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua, director of the department for Interreligious Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Dominican Fr. Amir Jaje, Secretary of Iraqi Catholic bishops’ Commission for Interreligious Dialogue and Jesuit Fr. Felix Körner, professor of theology of religions at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University. There are also two other lay people: Ms. Rotraud Wielandt, professor of Islamic studies at Bamberg University, Germany and Professor Ian Netton, vice-director for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Exeter, UK. He also teaches in Sharjah, in the UAE.
The Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue (PCID) is the central office of the Catholic Church for the promotion of interreligious dialogue in accordance with the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. In this regard, the office promotes mutual understanding, respect and collaboration between Catholics and the followers of others religious traditions. It encourage the study of religions and promotes formation of persons dedicated to dialogue. However, the Catholic Church’s relations with Jews is handled by another Vatican office - the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. It was started by Pope Paul VI on May 19, 1964 as the Secretariat for Non-Christians, and blessed John Paul II renamed it the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue on 28 June 1988.