0
0
Pope Francis’ greeting to the interreligious conference of the Focolare Movement
Clementine Hall – Monday, 3 June 2024
The Focolare Movement is a Christian religious movement and international organization that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brother/sisterhood. It was founded by the elementary school teacher Chiara Lubich in 1943 in Trento, Northern Italy as a Roman Catholic lay movement. (Wikipedia)
“Interreligious dialogue is a necessary condition for peace in the world”
Dear brothers and sisters,
I greet the President of the Focolare Movement, to whom I say: I pray for your homeland, which is suffering at this time; and I greet all of you who are participating in this interreligious conference.
I am grateful for the perseverance with which the Work of Mary, begun by Chiara Lubich, continues the journey with people of non-Christian religions who share the spirituality of unity.
This has been a revolutionary journey that does the Church so much good.
It is an experience animated by the Holy Spirit, rooted, we can say, in the heart of Christ, in his thirst for love, communion and fraternity.
Indeed, it is the Spirit who opens paths of dialogue and encounter sometimes surprising ones.
an entirely Muslim community adhering to the Movement was born. And so it was also with Chiara Lubich’s meetings with leaders of various religions: Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Sikhs, and others. A dialogue that has developed to this day, as your presence today demonstrates.
The foundation on which this experience rests is the Love of God that is realized in mutual love, listening, trusting, welcoming and getting to know one another, while fully respecting each other’s identities.
Over time, friendship and collaboration have grown in seeking to respond together to the cry of the poor, in caring for creation, in working for peace.
Through this journey, some non-Christian brothers and sisters have shared the spirituality of the Work of Mary or some of its characteristic traits and live them among their people.
With these people we go beyond dialogue, we feel like brothers and sisters, we share the dream of a more united world, in the harmony of diversity.
Dear friends, your witness is a source of joy and a source of consolation, especially in this time of conflict, in which religion is often instrumentalized to fuel confrontation.
Interreligious dialogue , on the contrary, “is a necessary condition for peace in the world, and therefore it is a duty for Christians, as for other religious communities” (Evangelii Gaudium, 250).
Therefore, I encourage you to move forward and to be always open.May the Lord bless you all. May he grant his blessing to each one of you, because the Lord is close to all of us. May the Lord bless you.
