Pope asked to take lead for dialogue
Hindus have welcomed call for dialogue by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and
have asked him to take the lead in organizing one.
In his annual address to the members
of diplomatic corps accredited to Holy See on January seven in Vatican City, Pope
reportedly said: “… building peace through dialogue is no longer a choice but a
necessity!”
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a
statement in Nevada (USA) today, termed Pope’s stress on building peace through
dialogue as a “step in the right direction”.
Zed, who is President of Universal
Society of Hinduism, said that serious and honest interfaith dialogue was the
need of the hour and Pope should take the lead in organizing one.
Rajan Zed argued that Pope, being
the leader of the largest religious organization of the world with about 1.2
billion followers, should invite leaders of major world religions and
denominations to Vatican City and initiate the dialogue.
Religion was the most powerful,
complex and far-reaching force in our society, so we must take it seriously.
And we all knew that religion comprised much more than our own particular
tradition/experience, Zed pointed out.
After intensive deliberations, this
meeting of world religious leaders should come up with a concrete plan about
the common religious concerns like human improvement, peace, ecological
responsibility, social & economic development, etc. Maybe this gathering could
become an annual feature after that, Rajan Zed added.
Zed further says that in our shared pursuit for the truth, we can learn
from one another and thus can arrive nearer to the truth. This dialogue may
help us vanquish the prejudices, caricatures, etc., passed on to us from
previous generations. As dialogue brings us reciprocal enrichment, we shall be
spiritually richer than before the contact.
Pope heads the Roman Catholic
Church, which is the largest of the Christian denominations. Hinduism, oldest
and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and
moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal.
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