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Ecumenical bells: Pope calls for 'respect' for all religions
March 22
- Pope Wants to Partner With Islam to Tackle Poverty
Pope Francis urged the
West on Friday to intensify dialogue with Islam
and appealed to the world to do more to combat poverty.
The new pontiff made his appeal in an
address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican,
sending a message through them to the leaders of the more than 170 countries
with which the Vatican
has diplomatic relations. Speaking in Italian, he also made another impassioned
appeal for the defense of the poor and of the environment, saying richer
countries should fight what he called "the spiritual poverty of our
times" by re-forging links with God.
He urged them to help
keep religion central in public life and promote inter-religious dialogue as a
catalyst for efforts to build peace.
"In this work
(peace building), the role of religion is fundamental. It is not possible to
build bridges between people while forgetting God," he sai
"But the converse is also true: It is not possible to establish true links with God while ignoring
other people. Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various
religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."
Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge
Mario Bergoglio of Argentina,
said he was grateful that many Muslim
religious and civilian leaders attended his inaugural Mass on Tuesday.
"Fighting poverty, both material and spiritual, building peace and
constructing bridges: these, as it were, are the reference points for a journey
that I want to invite each of the countries here represented to take up," he said.
March 19 - Ecumenical presence at papal installation
Article: Protestants Uniting With Roman Catholics
The general
secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit
attended the mass in which Pope Francis, the new pontiff of the Roman Catholic
Church, was installed on 19 March at the Vatican in Rome. Tveit joined prominent religious and political leaders from around
the world at the mass in St
Peter's Square, marking the official start of
Francis’s papacy.
Ecumenical leaders present
at the installation included Bartholomew I, the first Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
to attend a papal installation since the schism of 1054.
Tveit attended the
event in order to give a “significant
expression of the WCC’s collaboration with the Roman Catholic Church, as well
as our mutual commitment to church unity and the ecumenical movement.”
“In close
collaboration with Pope Francis, we look forward to building on this positive
relationship with the Catholic Church that has been nurtured so carefully in
the past,” stated Tveit in his letter to the new
pope on 13 March.
Tveit assured Pope
Francis of his prayers. “Participating in
common prayer to mark the start of Francis’s papacy highlights the ecumenical
dimension of our shared spiritual life, the heart of what we share as
Christians.” Let us use this opportunity to pray for and with Pope Francis to
reconfirm that we need one another, to address the challenges of the world in
our time,” said Tveit.
Article: One
World Religion
In his book, a dialogue with Skorka about religion, the Holocaust, politics and everyday life issues, Bergoglio proudly recalls his efforts to build bridges with other religious leaders during his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires.
In addition to being a frequent guest at Jewish synagogues and inviting rabbis to Catholic Masses, hosting a TV show with Skorka and participating in ceremonies honoring the victims of the Holocaust, Bergoglio changed the protocol at official Te Deum ceremonies to acknowledge the presence of leaders of other religions.
Bergoglio was also a frequent guest at Evangelical Christian Masses and at Islamic religious ceremonies.
In the book, Bergoglio recalls being criticized by some members in his own Church in Argentina for having knelt in front of 7,000 attendants at an Evangelical Christian Mass at the Luna Park stadium in Buenos Aires. Later, a magazine carried a headline saying that the archbishop of Buenos Aires had turned his back on his Church for doing that. “For them, to pray with others was an act of apostasy,” Bergoglio recalls, referring to the authors of that article. “[But] Everyone prays according to his tradition. What’s the problem?”
In another part of the book, he says that globalization should not be like a billiards ball, but rather like “a polyhedron, in which all sides integrate, but in which all sides at the same time maintain their peculiarities, and enrich one another.”
Read Full Article ....
March 20 - Pope Francis ties with Jews, Muslims could strengthen
Vatican
The most interesting
thing about Argentine Pope Francis may be not just that he’s the first Latin
American to head the Vatican, but also that he may become the Church’s biggest champion of
interfaith dialogue ever. I just read his book
About Heaven and Earth, which he co-authored in 2010 with Argentine Rabbi
Abraham Skorka, and I was struck by the new pope’s commitment to not only talk about interfaith dialogue, but to do
something about it.
In his book, a dialogue with Skorka about religion, the Holocaust, politics and everyday life issues, Bergoglio proudly recalls his efforts to build bridges with other religious leaders during his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires.
In addition to being a frequent guest at Jewish synagogues and inviting rabbis to Catholic Masses, hosting a TV show with Skorka and participating in ceremonies honoring the victims of the Holocaust, Bergoglio changed the protocol at official Te Deum ceremonies to acknowledge the presence of leaders of other religions.
In Argentina, a constitutionally Roman Catholic
country where presidents usually attend the Te Deum on national holidays, it
had long been a tradition for the archbishop of Buenos Aires to escort the president out of
the church at the end of the ceremony. “Religious leaders of other faiths were
left alone in one space, as if you were puppets in an exhibition,” Bergoglio
tells the rabbi in the book. “I changed that
tradition: now, the president walks toward you, and greets representatives of
all religions.”
Bergoglio was also a frequent guest at Evangelical Christian Masses and at Islamic religious ceremonies.
In the book, Bergoglio recalls being criticized by some members in his own Church in Argentina for having knelt in front of 7,000 attendants at an Evangelical Christian Mass at the Luna Park stadium in Buenos Aires. Later, a magazine carried a headline saying that the archbishop of Buenos Aires had turned his back on his Church for doing that. “For them, to pray with others was an act of apostasy,” Bergoglio recalls, referring to the authors of that article. “[But] Everyone prays according to his tradition. What’s the problem?”
In another part of the book, he says that globalization should not be like a billiards ball, but rather like “a polyhedron, in which all sides integrate, but in which all sides at the same time maintain their peculiarities, and enrich one another.”
March 20 - Pope Francis ties with Jews, Muslims could strengthen
Vatican
The most interesting
thing about Argentine Pope Francis may be not just that he’s the first Latin
American to head the Vatican, but also that he may become the Church’s biggest champion of
interfaith dialogue ever. I just read his book
About Heaven and Earth, which he co-authored in 2010 with Argentine Rabbi
Abraham Skorka, and I was struck by the new pope’s commitment to not only talk about interfaith dialogue, but to do
something about it.
In his book, a dialogue with Skorka about religion, the Holocaust, politics and everyday life issues, Bergoglio proudly recalls his efforts to build bridges with other religious leaders during his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires.
In addition to being a frequent guest at Jewish synagogues and inviting rabbis to Catholic Masses, hosting a TV show with Skorka and participating in ceremonies honoring the victims of the Holocaust, Bergoglio changed the protocol at official Te Deum ceremonies to acknowledge the presence of leaders of other religions.
In Argentina, a constitutionally Roman Catholic
country where presidents usually attend the Te Deum on national holidays, it
had long been a tradition for the archbishop of Buenos Aires to escort the president out of
the church at the end of the ceremony. “Religious leaders of other faiths were
left alone in one space, as if you were puppets in an exhibition,” Bergoglio
tells the rabbi in the book. “I changed that
tradition: now, the president walks toward you, and greets representatives of
all religions.”
Bergoglio was also a frequent guest at Evangelical Christian Masses and at Islamic religious ceremonies.
In the book, Bergoglio recalls being criticized by some members in his own Church in Argentina for having knelt in front of 7,000 attendants at an Evangelical Christian Mass at the Luna Park stadium in Buenos Aires. Later, a magazine carried a headline saying that the archbishop of Buenos Aires had turned his back on his Church for doing that. “For them, to pray with others was an act of apostasy,” Bergoglio recalls, referring to the authors of that article. “[But] Everyone prays according to his tradition. What’s the problem?”
In another part of the book, he says that globalization should not be like a billiards ball, but rather like “a polyhedron, in which all sides integrate, but in which all sides at the same time maintain their peculiarities, and enrich one another.”
