A Sixth Category for Glenmary Mission....Inter-Religious Dialogue?

   

      

          Most folk know that Glenmary operates under five general categories of mission:  Catholic nurture, working with the Universal Church, ecumenism, social outreach, and evangelization of the un-churched.  But perhaps just for a day I added to those missionary tasks Inter-religious Dialogue.

     

        Back in 1986 in Assisi, Italy, St. John Paul II began a tradition of bringing together people from all of the world's religions, as well as people of good will, in order to pray for peace.  Of course, this was a complicated task given the diversity of beliefs and practices.  But his motivation was genuine:  get people together to think, talk, dialogue and pray for peace in a world that desperately needed it.

      Today, I was able to attend a continuation of this dream of Saint John Paul II in Antwerp, Belgium, as the Saint Egidio community put on a program entitled "Peace is the Future."  Once again, people from various religious backgrounds, civil leaders, and people of good will came together to reflect on what peace might look like in our world, and how we can possibly move towards realizing some of these dreams.  Given the recent atrocities in Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine, as well as continued violence in other parts of the world, it was certainly a timely event.

From left to right: Hilde Kieboom (St. Egidio), Abraham Skorka (Rabbi and friend of Pope Francis),
Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp, Vian Dakheel (Yazidi Community and MP of Iraq who was recently pleaded in the news for her persecuted community in Iraq), and Andrea Riccardi (founder of the St. Egidio community)

              One of the most moving speakers was Vian Dakheel, a MP of the Iraqi government and a member of the Yazidi people.  She has recently been featured on the news begging for international support and response for her people who have been slaughtered and scattered as refugees due to the inhuman and barbarous acts of ISIS.  She again brought many to tears, describing how ISIS finally left the Yazidi area they had been occupying because the smell of the corpses or her slaughtered people began to be too much for them to take.  She certainly made real the suffering of her people to so many who are isolated from the direct effects of this violence.

          Equally moving was the presentation of Ignatius Aphrem II, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East (pictured left).  He talked about visiting many different sites throughout the Middle East where his followers lived only to see countless acts of genocide, killings, starvations, and persecution.  He mentioned how faith in the Prince of Peace, Jesus the Christ, is the only way to achieve lasting peace.  But he said that in visiting families and speaking to survivors it was sometimes difficult to communicate this.  

     

         There was also a presentation by Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam, Grand Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt (see below).  As a Muslim, he emphatically proclaimed that extremism and terrorism are not part of the Islam.  He said that unfortunately much of the violence done in the name of Islam today is being led by radical leaders who have had little to no education in Islamic tradition, and who are motivated by complex and irrational reasons for their atrocious acts against humanity. 

     This was a moving event for me.  Being surrounded by thousands of people, many of which are leaders of their respective religious traditions, indicated a sign of hope in our tumultuous age.  Yet the path to peace is a difficult and complex one, that must consider all of the various elements that add to violence in our world.   Many hope in governments to provide the answer, or better distribution of the world's resources to bring about the solution.   These all certainly can help the situation.  But for myself, I only think that peace will be achieved as the world is drawn closer to the one who frees us from our sinfulness, frees us from our selfishness, and the one who turned from violence and aggression and gave us his own life instead:  Jesus Christ.  May we who believe in him pray more fervently for peace in our hearts and in the world, and may the world continue its dialogue and search to realizing the peace that we all desire.