Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue from the Vatican will lead a 30-member Catholic representative team at a Hindu-Christian meeting on the theme: ‘Enhancing Hindu-Christian relations and collaboration for justice, peace and harmony.’ The four-day meet, from November 6 to 9, will be held at the city-based Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth.
A 30-member team led by Swami Shrikantananda, head of Ramakrishna Mission, will also attend the meet.
Rt Reverend Thomas Dabre, Bishop of Poona, chairman of the local organising committee said that this was a unique and historical event for Pune and the first official meeting between the Pope’s representatives and senior Hindu religious leaders to promote harmony.
“However this is not just a dialogue for mere talks, we would actually be living and eating together to ensure that we believe in brotherhood and equality while we talk of it. The important aspect would be understanding each other’s religions and recognising the contribution made by religions to other faiths and society. We would discuss the vital point of religion being used as excuse for promoting violence or terrorism in the name of religion,” said Dabre.
The other important aspect that will be discussed is the role of religion in society, environmental protection, religion and science and technology, role of religion in protecting humanity and dignity of women and promoting equality amongst genders.
“We will talk about many practical issues like female foeticide for example. Why are girls diminishing and not treated like equals? I am against abortion but other religions might not be and we need to discuss this on a common platform,” Dabre said.
