Pope Francis addresses Korean Council of Religious
Leaders
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday met with the
Korean Council of Religious Leaders in the Vatican stressing the importance of
interreligious dialogue directed towards a future of peace and hope.
In his prepared remarks to the Korean Council of Religious
Leaders, the Pope highlighted the importance and often, as he put it,
challenging path of interreligious dialogue. This dialogue between religions,
noted the Pope, “consists of contacts, encounters and cooperation, a challenge
directed towards the common good and peace.”
He went on to say that, “such dialogue must always be
both open and respectful if it is to be fruitful.”
Pope Francis told those present, “the world is looking to
us; it asks us to work together and with all men and women of good will.”
The world, continued the Pope, "looks to us for answers
and a shared commitment" on a range of issues, such as, the sacred dignity
of the human person, the hunger and poverty which still afflict too many
peoples, the rejection of violence, and, not least of all, the crisis of hope.
"We have, therefore, a long journey ahead of us,
observed the Holy Father, one he said, that must be undertaken with humility
and perseverance, not just by raising our voices but by rolling up our sleeves,
to sow a future of hope."
Below please find the English translation of the Pope's
address to the Korean Council of Religious Leaders
Address of His Holiness Pope Francis
to the Korean Council of Religious Leaders
2 September 2017
Dear friends from the Korean Council of Religious Leaders, I
am pleased to welcome you for this meeting. You have travelled a long way
to come to Rome on your interreligious pilgrimage, and I thank you for your
presence here. I am grateful to Archbishop Kim Hee-jong for proposing
this visit and for his kind words. As I said in Seoul: “Life is a
journey, a long journey, but a journey which we cannot make by ourselves. We
need to walk together with our brothers and sisters in the presence of God”
(Meeting with Religious Leaders, 18 August 2014). Here we are today
taking another step on this journey together!
As you know, particularly since the Second Vatican Council,
the Catholic Church has tirelessly embarked upon the often challenging path of
dialogue. The Church, in a special way, has encouraged dialogue with
followers of other religions. Today too she “urges her sons and
daughters… with prudence and charity… to acknowledge, preserve and encourage
the spiritual and moral values found among them, together with their social
life and culture” (Nostra Aetate, 2). Because interreligious dialogue
consists of contacts, encounters and cooperation, it is an endeavour that is
precious and pleasing to God, a challenge directed towards the common good and
peace.
Such dialogue must always be
both open and respectful if it is to be fruitful.
Open, that is to say warm and sincere, carried forward by persons willing to
walk together with esteem and honesty. Respectful, because mutual respect
is at once the condition and the goal of interreligious dialogue: indeed it is
in respecting the right to life, physical integrity and fundamental freedoms,
such as those of conscience, religion, thought and expression, that the
foundations are laid for building peace, for which each of us is called to pray
and work.
The world is looking to us; it asks us to work together and
with all men and women of good will. It looks to us for answers and a
shared commitment to various issues: the sacred dignity of the human person,
the hunger and poverty which still afflict too many peoples, the rejection of
violence, in particular that violence which profanes the name of God and
desecrates religion, the corruption that gives rise to injustice, moral decay,
and the crisis of the family, of the economy and, not least of all, the crisis
of hope.
We have, therefore, a long journey ahead of us, which must
be undertaken with humility and perseverance, not just by raising our voices
but by rolling up our sleeves, to sow the hope of a future in which humanity
becomes more human, a future which heeds the cry of so many who reject war and
implore greater harmony between individuals and communities, between peoples
and states. Religious leaders are thus called upon to initiate, promote
and accompany processes for the welfare and reconciliation of all people: we
are called to be heralds of peace, proclaiming and embodying a nonviolent
style, a style of peace, with words clearly different from the narrative
of fear, and with gestures opposed to the rhetoric of hatred.
Dear friends, may this meeting strengthen us on our
journey. Seeing you here as pilgrims reminds me of my pilgrimage to the
beautiful land of Korea, for which I remain grateful to God and to the beloved
Korean people. I constantly pray that God will bestow upon them the gifts
of peace and fraternal reconciliation. May our mindfulness of the
friendship and the good things we have received from one another grant us the
strength to move forward together, with the help of God. Thank you.
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