Religious differences enrich, pope
says
Editors note: At press time, John Allen Jr.,
NCRs Vatican correspondent, sent a copy of Pope John Paul IIs
words of welcome on Sept. 7 to a new ambassador from Egypt. We find the text,
released by the Vatican in its Daily Bulletin, interesting in light of the
release just two days earlier of Dominus Iesus, the subject of our cover
package in this issue.
Your presence brings back the joy of my days spent in your country
last February, and once more I express my heartfelt thanks to President Mubarak
and to the government for making that visit such a memorable and fruitful
one.
In this year of the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus
Christ, it was a great grace for me to travel to places of vital significance
for the religious history of the world. I recall especially Mount Sinai where I
was able to commemorate the gift of the Law which God wrote long ago on tablets
of stone and which he continues to write in every age on the human heart.
I have an especially warm recollection of my meeting with Grand
Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi. We both expressed the wish for a new era of
religious and cultural dialogue between Islam and Christianity.
It is in this context, Mr. Ambassador, that I am particularly
pleased that you have spoken of Egypt as a land where unity and harmony are
greatly valued and where differences of religion are seen not as barriers but
as a means for mutual enrichment in rendering service to the nation. I trust
most sincerely that this will always be the case, and that the difficulties
that have arisen from time to time will be overcome, especially in view of the
widespread willingness and positive conditions for interreligious dialogue and
cooperation which can be found in Egypt.
In a world deeply marked by violence, it is bitterly ironic that
even now some of the worst conflicts are between believers who worship the one
God, who look to Abraham as a holy patriarch and who seek to follow the Law of
Sinai. Each act of violence makes it more urgent for Muslims and Christians
everywhere to recognize the things we have in common, to bear witness that we
are all creatures of the one merciful God, and to agree once and for all that
recourse to violence in the name of religion is completely unacceptable.
Especially when religious identity coincides with cultural and
ethnic identity it is a solemn duty of believers to ensure that religious
sentiment is not used as an excuse for hatred and conflict. Religion is the
enemy of exclusion and discrimination; it seeks the good of everyone and
therefore ought always to be a stimulus for solidarity and harmony between
individuals and among peoples.
National Catholic Reporter, September 15,
2000
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