ROME, NOV. 14, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Interreligious dialogue should extend to daily relationships, but it is bringing good fruits, said the director of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies.
Father Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot affirmed this recently at an event ushering in the new school year for the Pontifical Theological Faculty Marianum.
Drawing from the Second Vatican Council declaration "Nostra Aetate," Father Ayuso explained that "the cooperation between cultural and religious groups is absolutely necessary to overcome all forms of community tension and to be able, therefore, to live in hopes of camaraderie and peace."
The priest spent 20 years as a missionary in Egypt and Sudan.
"Some of this new millennium's events -- Sept. 11, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East, etc. -- have clouded over the world, already seen as a global village thanks to human progress, and it has been placed in a delicate situation demanding everyone's collaboration at all levels to assure world peace," he contended. "It's obvious that religion has a fundamental role in this process of integration, coexistence and peace."
Catalyst
Father Ayuso said that in recent decades, interreligious dialogue with Muslims has produced numerous fruits.
"In the Catholic Church, the great impulse of the Islamic-Christian dialogue was Vatican II. In the Muslim environment, the response to dialogue's demands comes a little late, but it is at least significant, contrary to what some think," he said.
Citing Father Maurice Borrmans, a well-known promoter of Islamic-Christian dialogue, Father Ayuso affirmed that "in the midst of the questions and confusion generated today by the international situation regarding Islamic-Western relations, and in the midst of the uncertainties and worries of many men and women accustomed to dialogue, it is necessary on everyone's part, Christian and Muslim alike, not to lose hope and to recover the momentum."
"This dialogue continues, as we've seen, in spite of difficulties and obstacles. Many institutions, Christian and Muslim, have insisted on this work," he noted.
Future
Father Ayuso acknowledged that the process is difficult: "Many criticize this dialogue and come to believe it is useless, at times dangerous, as much for one as for the other. In reality, the actual situation offers everyone a good opportunity to purify intentions, improve methods and increase activities.
"In this sense, they have marked three perspectives for the future: education, seeking common shared values and reciprocal cooperation in the building of our future."
"We need a common platform to develop interreligious relationships in daily life, in interreligous cooperation, and in theological reflection, as well as in a spiritual encounter," Father Ayuso continued. "Our times, ever more globalized every day, urgently need harmonious dealings that promote religious freedom, healthy reciprocity and the promotion of peace."
Quoting Benedict XVI, he proposed that "all this must happen by means of intercultural and interreligious dialogue, with optimism and hope, simply because this dialogue can't be reduced to something added or optional; on the contrary, it is a vital necessity on which is dependent a good part of our future."
