Catholic senator says religious dialogue key to lasting peace

Published: 2003-10-22

OTTAWA (CNS) -- The only way to lasting peace is if all faiths reach out in dialogue and reconciliation, said a Canadian Catholic senator. In an address to a Canadian Islamic Congress Oct. 20, Douglas Roche, a member of the Canadian Senate from Edmonton, Alberta, noted that Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi recently was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. "The ideas espoused by Ms. Ebadi ... reveal the lie that has been spread, both by Islamic extremists and their fundamentalist opponents in other religions, that human rights and Islamic faith are irreconcilable," he said. "This lie has provided a useful cover for hard-line governments in the Muslim world anxious to justify their excessive powers," said Roche, founding editor of the Western Catholic Reporter diocesan newspaper and a former adviser to the Vatican's U.N. mission on disarmament matters.

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