Pope Francis: 50th anniversary Message to Dialogue Council
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis sent a Message to the President of the Pontifical Council
for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, on the occasion of the 50th
anniversary of the Council’s founding. A Mass and a special conference were also being
held on Monday in the Vatican to mark the occasion.
“The institution of the
[Dialogue Council’s predecessor department], the Secretariat for non-Christians,”
writes Pope Francis in the Message, “represented one of the important decisions, which,
with ponderous reflection, the Servant of God Paul VI put into action during the II
Vatican Ecumenical Council,” in order to begin to translate the Council’s orientations
into concrete terms, “and direct the universal Church on the path of the hoped-for
renewal.”
The Holy Father goes on to say, “In joining myself to the giving
of thanks to God for the work accomplished in these 50 years, it is my hope that the
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue might continue its mission with renewed
vigor, which might greatly help the cause of peace and of the authentic progress of
peoples.”