Pope’s Korea visit will boost missionary impulse, dialogue

According to an official of the Catholic Church of India and Asia, the visit of Pope Francis ‎to South ‎Korea, August 14-18, will give "a great missionary impetus to dialogue", mainly because ‎‎"Asia's reality ‎is multi-cultural."  Archbishop Felix Anthony Machado, Bishop of Vasai, president of the ‎Commission ‎for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue of the Federation of Asian Bishops ‎‎'Conferences (FABC), ‎as well as president of the Office for Ecumenism and Dialogue of the Catholic ‎Bishops' Conference of ‎India (CBCI), shared his thoughts with AsiaNews.   Arch. Machado said that ‎the Pope’s Korean visit ‎could be been a prophetic opening for next year’s golden jubilee celebrations of ‎‎‘Nostra Aetate’, the ‎Second Vatican Council document on the Church’s relations with other religions.  ‎The prelate ‎underscored the multi-cultural nature of Asia's reality, with the continent home to three eminent ‎world ‎religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.  “Hence,” he said, “the visit of the Holy Father will ‎keep ‎the tradition of meeting people from other faiths.”   Archbishop Machado, a former official at ‎the ‎Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, noted that the Church in Asia continues ‎to ‎engage in dialogue with peoples, cultures and religions, and the visit of Pope Francis will give a ‎great ‎missionary impetus to dialogue.   Religions, he noted, have an indispensable role in the promotion of ‎peace ‎and development, and the visit of our Holy Father could play a significant and defining role for ‎leaders ‎of religious faiths endeavoring to promote the human rights of all people in building a more ‎peaceful ‎and just world.‎