Australia: World Religions Congress to meet

The congress of the World’s Religions will be held in Melbourne, Australia from December 3 to 9.

Many religious communities including Catholics are expected to participate according to Archbishop Denis Hart form Australia.

“We naturally want to engage with and seek to understand people of other faiths in order to ensure that our relationships with them are harmonious and peaceful and that their human right to freedom of belief is respected, just as we wish our rights to be respected,”" said Archbishop Hart.

The archbishop said “"At the same time, we also always keep in mind that we have been commissioned to give constant witness to our faith in Jesus Christ as the true and unique revelation of God, as our Saviour and as the one who can lead us to true holiness and communion with God.”"

“"Where there is truth and holiness in other religions, we acknowledge this, and use it as an opportunity in dialogue to bear witness that wherever truth and holiness exists, it has its ultimate source in Jesus Christ. Our dialogue with people of other faiths will also give us the opportunity for giving account of our hope of salvation in Jesus,"” said the clergy.

Archbishop said in Cathnews that true dialogue means listening as well as having something to say. "Although we must always remain steadfast in the doctrines of our own faith and must guard against anything that contradicts it, we can be open to the possibility that God wants to teach us something through our encounter with those who follow other religious paths, and to acknowledge that, in his divine plan, they also may serve some good purpose."

He said that as a good rule of thumb, we should remember that while the Church always proposes Jesus Christ, she never imposes faith in Christ on anyone. In this we need to have confidence in Jesus himself, that he is indeed “the Way, the Truth and the Life”. Others will not be converted to Christ by our efforts, or by the strength of our arguments.

“"If we believe that Christ is really “the Truth”, we will have the confidence to simply witness to this Truth and to leave the work of conversion to him. As Pope John Paul II taught in his Encyclical Fides et Ratio, “The truth, which is Christ, imposes itself as an all-embracing authority” (§15). Our task is simply to take every opportunity to witness to this Truth that is to Jesus"” he said.

The Archbishop Hart said, “"I pray that our participation in the Parliament of the World’s Religions may be an opportunity to engage with those who may seem to be ‘strangers’ to us, and an opening for us to bear authentic witness to the saving and unifying love of Jesus for all people.”"

Source: CISA