Interreligious dialogue looks for signs of God at work, cardinal says

Published: 2004-05-20

ROME (CNS) -- The Catholic Church engages in dialogue with the traditional religions of Africa and other regions because it believes that they, like the world's major religions, have belief systems containing positive values, said Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze. The cardinal, former president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and current prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, was the keynote speaker at the May 19 celebration of the council's 40th anniversary. "A human being at 40 should have attained full growth and is expected to consolidate. A Roman Curia dicastery at 40 is still rather young," he told the gathering. Cardinal Arinze, who led the council office from 1984 to 2002, said the Catholic basis for interreligious dialogue is a belief that Jesus came to save all humanity and that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world, leading people toward salvation.

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