Interfaith dialogue ‘a priority for world peace’

Interfaith dialogue is of the utmost priority for world peace, says Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna. 

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Photo: Paul Haring/CNS

WelCom December 2022

Interfaith dialogue is of the utmost priority for world peace, says Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna. 

Together with 200 religious leaders and research scientists, the cardinal took part in the two-day ‘Bahrain Forum for Dialogue’ at the invitation of the President of the Supreme Council for Islamic affairs, Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Khalifa, from 3–5 November.

All religions have three fundamental things in common, Cardinal Schönborn said. They share a common source, have a relation to transcendence and a common responsibility for justice and peace.

‘Different cultures and different languages are, in the final instance, only a differentiation within one family’, Cardinal Schönborn pointed out. Pope Francis had emphasised this in Fratelli tutti, his third encyclical, he recalled, but it had already been underlined in 1937 by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, in which the Pope had sharply criticised all forms of racism.

All religions related to transcendence which created a broad base for dialogue, said the Cardinal. And they also had a common responsibility for peace and justice. The idea that we will all finally have to take responsibility for our actions is common to all religions, he added.

After attending the forum, Cardinal Schönborn joined Pope Francis for the ecumenical prayer for peace in Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral in Awali and at the Mass in Bahrain stadium. Pope Francis is the first Pope to visit Bahrain.

Sources: Crux, BBC News.