Recently Pope Benedict XVI appointed me to a five-year term as a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. As many of you know, I have been involved from the beginning of my priesthood in ecumenical and interreligious affairs. This is not a quixotic commitment. It stems from the Second Vatican Council’s documents on ecumenism and on interreligious dialogue. In both those documents of the Council, the Fathers of the Council under the headship of Pope Paul VI committed the Church to the way of dialogue. That “way of dialogue” was reaffirmed time and again by Pope Paul VI and by Pope John Paul II during their pontificates. Pope Benedict XVI has made ecumenical and interreligious dialogue a central motif of his own pontificate. However, all of us should recognize that this is a commitment not just of pontiff and of bishop but indeed of the whole Catholic Church, lay faithful, consecrated women and men, deacons, priests and bishop.

Here in our country, the U.S. bishops carry on many such dialogues. One of them is with the Orthodox Jews. This is carried on with the Orthodox Rabbis of the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Assembly. Last week we had our semi-annual meeting in Manhattan. It was very fruitful. In the United States, we also carry on dialogues with our Muslim neighbors. There are three dialogues currently in existence. One is in California, where they are exploring scriptural stories together. Another is in the Midwest, which has recently completed a series of discussions and published a book on Revelation from a Catholic perspective and Revelation from a Muslim perspective. This is a very worthwhile endeavor that is going to help us remove stereotypes and deepen our mutual understandings. Here in the mid-Atlantic states, a dialogue has been conducted with the leadership of Bishop Catanello of Brooklyn and now Bishop Madden of Baltimore as the Catholic leader. They have completed a 10-year conversation on mixed marriages between Catholics and Muslims. In a short while, the results of that dialogue will be published, much as the one which was done recently on Revelation for the dialogue going on in the Midwest.

One area in which the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue carries on its work is through the messages that are formulated in the name of the Holy Father for special feast days in other religious groups. Let me share with you two examples. Both are signed by Cardinal Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran who is the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. The first is a message for the end of Ramadan last month. It is called Christians and Muslims: called to promote a culture of peace. In this message, Cardinal Tauran calls on us to work together to be educators of peace, of human rights and of a freedom which respects each person but also to ensure increasingly social bonds because we must take care to look on one another as brothers and sisters with discrimination. As he said:

“In the troubled times we are passing through, religious believers have, as servants of the Almighty, a duty above all to work in favor of peace, by showing respect for the convictions of the individuals and communities everywhere through freedom of religious practice. Religious freedom, which must not be reduced to mere freedom of worship, is one of the essential aspects of freedom of conscience, which is the right of every individual and a cornerstone of human rights.”

At his conclusion after examining this issue, he reminded us all and called us all to a new hope.

“This is the ardent hope I share with you: that Christians and Muslims continue to develop increasingly friendly and constructive relationships in order to share their specific riches, and that they will pay particular attention to the quality of the witness of their believers.”

For the Hindu Feast of Diwali, Cardinal Tauran published a message from the Pontifical Council entitled Christians and Hindus: determined to walk the path of dialogue. This dialogue has not had as long a history as that with the Muslims, but it is one that deals with a religious tradition that comes from a totally different culture. In this, Cardinal Tauran greets the people of the Hindu tradition with a great sensitivity to their religious feelings and with expressions of respect for their ancient traditions. In turn, he goes on to say the following:
“The world around us is yearning for peace. Religions promise peace because they trace their origin to God who, according to Christian belief, is our peace. Can we, as believers of different religious traditions, not work together to receive God’s gift of peace and to spread it around us so that the world becomes for all people a better place to live? Our respective communities must pay urgent attention to the education of believers, who can so easily be misled by deceitful and false propaganda.

“Belief and freedom always go together. There can be no coercion in religion: no one can be forced to believe, neither can anyone who wishes to believe be prevented from doing so. Allow me to reiterate the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, which is quite clear on this point: ‘It is one of the major tenets of Catholic doctrine that man’s response to God in faith must be free. Therefore no one is to be forced to embrace the faith against his own will.’ (Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, 10). The Catholic Church has been faithful to this teaching as Pope Benedict XVI reminded recently to the Ambassadors of India and other countries to the Holy See: ‘…Peace is rooted in respect for religious freedom, which is a fundamental and primordial aspect of the freedom of conscience of individuals and of the freedom of peoples’ (18 May 2006). Forming believers first of all to discover the full dimensions and depth of their own religion, and then encouraging them to know other believers as well constitutes an important challenge for religious communities committed to building world peace. Let us not forget that ignorance is the first and, perhaps, the principal enemy in the life of believers, while the combined contribution of every enlightened believer provides a rich resource for lasting peace.”

These two examples of interreligious dialogue do not resolve the tremendous challenges that face us as the human family today. However, they do serve a very important purpose of bringing men and women of religious faith together to reflect upon common issues that affect human society and the life of the family of nations. They are the means by which men and women who believe in God will be able to make a contribution that reflects our commitment that God is the giver of life, that peace is ultimately His gift and that we need to walk together to present to a world that is increasingly divided a sign of unity and a sign of common commitment to peace and to the common good of all humanity.