Vatican representative says interreligious dialogue brings respect

Published: 2006-03-28

BOSTON (CNS) -- By bringing mutual respect and understanding, interreligious dialogue can contribute to peace, the former president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue said at a two-day symposium in Boston. Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, newly named Vatican ambassador to Egypt and the Arab League, delivered keynote talks at Brandeis University and Boston College. The two schools were co-hosts of the March 16-17 event that commemorated the 40th anniversary of "Nostra Aetate," the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions. In an opening talk at Brandeis March 16 on what the church has learned from interreligious dialogue, Archbishop Fitzgerald said that at the time of the council the church had some experience in ecumenical dialogue but almost none in developing relations with people of non-Christian religions. "In the field of interreligious dialogue the church as a whole had almost everything to learn," he said.

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