austraLasia 761
INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE A DUTY:
USG DISCUSSIONS RELEVANT FOR ASIA-OCEANIA RELIGIOUS
ROME: 29th November -- The Union of Superiors
General (USG), presently meeting at the Salesianum, Rome, have made
inter-religious dialogue their central theme for this year's meeting.
Speakers with experience in dialogue between Christians and Muslims, Hindus,
Buddhists (among others) have offered a challenge to Religious:
dialogue is a duty to be carried out even in the tensions and conflicts of
today's world. This point was made especially in reference to dialogue
with Muslims. Fr. Thomas Michel, S.J., Director of the Jesuit Secretariat
of Inter-religious dialogue, in his introductory talk to a workshop on
'Development of Inter-religious dialog with Muslims' also noted that
"Islamic-Christian dialogue can not expect that simple relationships will
exist between the two communities". His experience of living amongst
and teaching Muslims in universities in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia,
suggests that once trust is established, dialogue is not only welcomed but
requested.
The Indian Superior General of the Carmelites of
Mary Immaculate (CMI),Fr. Alexander Thanippara, spoke of the experience of dialogue between
monasticism and Buddhism and Hinduism. The Christian “Ashram” of India was
born as a way of fully enculturating Christianity in a specific religious
tradition and local culture in search of an “Indian identity” for the Church but
also to respond to the “crisis” in evangelization and to get closer to the
“elites”.
It is interesting to note that Ashrams exist
elsewhere than India - in Fiji for example, there is an Ashram, originally
administered by the Indian Missionary Society (IMS), which has sought over
the years to promote dialogue especially between Indo-Fijians and
indigenous Fijians, the majority of the latter being Christian, while the former
are either Hindu or Muslim adherents.
Perhaps it was the opening words of the outgoing
President of the USG, Bro. Alvaro Rodriguez, which best expressed the challenges
facing ordinary Religious. He was quoting a Religious living and working
in Asia (Malaysia):
“Our
Communities tend to identify with a systematically organized work-service, to
which we devote a lot of time and rely on the latest advances; their communities
emphasize life in general especially the spiritual life; people share with them
throughout the day and their work is less formal. In one way or another Catholic
religious are seen as erudite and teachers while they are seen as people of
prayer, holy and spiritual......Just
as our religious communities are committed to justice and peace, they too have
similar movements among themselves and bodies for working together. Their
meditation and psalmodic prayer appear to be more solemn and less hurried than
our vocal prayers. In some cases their religious communities are temporary
centers of formation where followers of their religion undergo a substantial
experience, without, however, embracing the religious life
permanently”.
