Minute's silence brings us together

By Stephen Gibbs and Mark Franklin

January 15, 2005
Actions have spoken so loudly since Australians first learnt of the Boxing Day disaster visited on our Indian
Ocean neighbours that words have hardly been heard.
After three weeks where more than $185million has poured into donation buckets and bank accounts,
Australians could even use one minute's silence tomorrow to acknowledge what has been achieved.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, has declared it a national day of mourning but invited Australians to
observe the occasion "in their own chosen ways". And so from Lennox Head to North Wollongong to Lord
Howe Island, surfers have organised groups to paddle offshore and form "rings of remembrance".
The Catholic Women's League has asked its members to say the rosary and a prayer to Saint Maria
Goretti, patron of youth and innocence, for the child victims.
At Bellerive Oval in Hobart umpires will halt play in the one day international between Australia and
Pakistan at the end of the over closest to 11.59am, the time the tsunami struck.
Mr Howard, who will attend a service at St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney, visited Zetland Islamic Centre
yesterday to join Muslims for midday prayers.
"We are reminded of the things that unite us and not of the things that divide us," Mr Howard told about 200
congregants. "That the values of the great religions of the world have so much in common, and the
decency of the people who profess those religions genuinely - they have so much in common.
"It also reminds us that, just as in life, sometimes more so in death, people of different religions and
different beliefs can suffer a common disaster."
The chief executive officer of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Amjad Ali Mehboob, told Mr
Howard he had "won the hearts of all the people in South-East Asia".
As Mr Howard left the prayer hall, he pulled $20 from his wallet and dropped it in a donation collection box.
He has asked Australians to consider wearing a sprig of wattle or similar flora tomorrow "as a quiet
personal gesture of remembrance and reflection".
"Let us all in our chosen ways find time ... to mourn the tragic loss of so many and offer our prayers and
hope for those still missing or recovering from this event."
He will be joined by the NSW Governor, Marie Bashir. Both will deliver readings, and the Archbishop of
Sydney, Peter Jensen, will also speak.
The Dean of St Mary's Cathedral, Neil Brown, will preside in place of Cardinal George Pell, who is on leave.
Mass will include a procession of 15 candles, each one representing 10,000 tsunami dead.
Jewish congregations would dedicate Saturday's sabbath to remembering the tsunami, and the Great
Synagogue's senior rabbi, Raymond Apple, has composed a prayer.
The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, said the city would fly flags at half-mast.
DAY OF MOURNING
TODAY
Major Jewish services at the Great Synagogue, Sydney at 9.30am and the Central Synagogue, Bondi Junction, at 9.30am.
TOMORROW
Church services at: St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, 10.30am. St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, 10.30am. Sri Lankan Catholic communit y. St Kevin's,
Eastwood, 10.30am. Our Lady of Dolours, Chatswood, 10.30am. Baulkham Hills Uniting Church, 9.30am. Pitt St Uniting C hurch, Sydney, 10am.
Parramatta Mission, Parramatta, 9.45am. Penrith Uniting Church, Penrith, 9am.
Other fundraising events
TODAY Friends by the Beach benefit concert at the Beach Road Hotel, Bondi, 3pm-9pm. Featuring local artists including Cog, Katalyst and The
Dead Rebels. Minimum $10 donation, all proceeds to CARE Australia. Buddhist Blessings for the New Year Multicultural Festival, Tumbalong Park,
Darling Harbour, 9.30am to 6.30pm. Prayers will be dedicated to and collections taken for tsunami victims. Manly Tsunami Benefit Day including
Jazz Festival on The Corso, 11am-6pm and "Hands & Hearts" drumming event 2pm-4pm on Manly Beach.
TOMORROW
Turn on the TAP (Tsunami Appeal Program) concert at Oneworld Live, Darling Harbour, 11am-midnight. Featuring Australian bands including the
Choirboys, Diana Anaid and Steve Balbi (Noiseworks). Cost is $25. All net profits go to Oxfam Community Aid Abroad. Annandal e Hotel tsunami
benefit night, 4pm, $15. Blacktown tsunami relief charity night at Bowman Hall, Civic Centre, Campbell Street, Blacktown, 6.30pm. $10/$5 at door.
Proceeds to UNICEF.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Minutes-silence-brings-us-together/2005/01/14/1105582721453.html

Unite against terrorism: Pope's call to religions

Published: July 21, 2008 on cathnews.com
In a speech to Muslim and Jewish leaders in Sydney, Pope Benedict called for all religions to unite
against terrorism and to resolve conflicts peacefully.
"In a world threatened by sinister and indiscriminate forms of violence, the united voice of religious
people urges nations and communities to resolve conflict through peaceful means and with full
regard for human dignity," Pope Benedict said.
The pope also said the Catholic Church was open to learn from other religions, a comment seen in
the context of the Vatican's moves to improve relations with the Islamic world. "The Church
eagerly seeks opportunities to listen to the spiritual experience of other religions," the Pope said.
Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg,
Germany, that was taken by Muslims to imply that Islam was violent and irrational.
Muslims around the world protested and the pope sought to make amends when he visited
Turkey's Blue Mosque and prayed towards Mecca with its Imam.
After the fallout from the Regensburg speech, 138 Muslim scholars and leaders wrote to the
German born pontiff and other Christian leaders last year, saying "the very survival of the world
itself" may depend on dialogue between the two faiths.
In March, the Vatican and Muslim leaders agreed to establish a permanent official dialogue,
known as "The Catholic-Muslim Forum", to improve often difficult relations.
The pope said he recognised multicultural Australia's respect for religious freedom, adding that
religion was a force for unity, not division.
He said religion can help people of different origins "live generously, forging bonds of friendships
with our neighbours."
"At their core human relations cannot be defined in terms of power, domination and self interest,
rather they reflect and perfect man's natural inclination to live in communion and accord with
others," the 81 year old pontiff said.
"The universality of human experience which transcends all geographical boundaries and cultural
limitations makes it possible for followers of religion to engage in dialogue so as to grapple with
the mystery of life's joys and sufferings."
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=8188

Pope meets Muslim scholars

Published: November 04, 2008
Muslim scholars have begun arriving in Rome for a three day meeting with Vatican officials and
with Pope Benedict to discuss plans to defuse tensions between Christianity and Islam.
Violent protests in the Islamic world after a Danish newspaper printed cartoons of the Prophet
Mohammad might have been averted if Christians and Muslims had spoken out jointly against
such unrest and the provocation behind it, the scholars say, Reuters reports.
This proposal is one of several ideas for better interfaith cooperation that the Common Word
group, a broad coalition of Muslim leaders and scholars pursuing dialogue between the world's two
largest religions, will present at the talks which begin today.
"We should develop a crisis reaction mechanism so if there is another cartoon crisis, we could get
together and make a joint statement," said Ibrahim Kalin, an Islam scholar from Turkey who is
spokesman for the group.
They would also speak out against religious persecution such as the oppression of Iraq's Christian
minority, said delegation member Sohail Nakhooda, editor of the Amman based magazine
Islamica. "We have to look out for each other," he said.
The Common Word manifesto, which invited Christian churches to a new interfaith dialogue based
on shared principles of love of God and neighbour, was issued in October 2007 partly in response
to Pope Benedict's Regensburg speech a year earlier.
In meetings this year with mostly Protestant leaders, Common Word delegates have proposed
regular dialogue sessions, student exchanges, suggested reading lists and other ideas to help
Christians and Muslims learn more about each other.
Kalin, an Islamic studies professor at Georgetown University in Washington, said cooperation
between churches and mosques in the Netherlands defused tensions before far right politician
Geert Wilders released his anti-Islam film Fitna early this year.
"That was the first fruit of the kind of cooperation we want to have," he said.
The Common Word manifesto, which now has 271 signatories, brings together leading Muslim
officials and scholars from around the world. Its 24 member delegation to the Vatican talks will be
led by Grand Mufti of Bosnia Mustafa Ceric.
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, will head
the Catholic delegation made up of 24 Vatican officials and Catholic experts on Islam.
He told the French Catholic daily La Croix that if Muslims could build mosques in Europe,
Christians should have the same right in majority Muslim countries.
Retrieved from CathNews (sourced from Reuters)
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=9945

Religious freedom is the go: Pope tells Muslims

Published: November 07, 2008
Pope Benedict stressed the importance of religious
freedom to Muslim scholars yesterday while a joint
statement from this week's meeting of Catholic and
Islamic scholars included a call for an ethical world
financial system.
"We call upon believers to work for an ethical financial
system in which the regulatory mechanisms consider
the situation of the poor and disadvantaged, both as individuals and as indebted nations," they
said in a joint declaration, The Age reports.
"We call on the privileged of the world to consider the plight of those afflicted most severely by the
current crisis in food production and distribution," they added.
The statement urged "religious believers of all denominations and all people of good will to work
together to alleviate the suffering of the hungry, and to eliminate its causes."
Earlier, the head of UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned that about 100 million
more people will be living in hunger in a year if unfair global agriculture practices are not changed.
In his address at the end of the forum, Pope Benedict told participants that "political and religious
leaders have the duty of ensuring ... each individual's freedom of conscience and freedom of
religion", The Sydney Morning Herald says.
"My hope ... is that these fundamental human rights will be protected for all people everywhere,"
Pope Benedict said.
The Vatican seminar was organised in response to a Muslim call for dialogue issued in October
2006, a month after Benedict's controversial speech in Regensburg, Germany, seen as linking
Islam with violence.
The forum "represents one more step along the way towards greater understanding between
Muslims and Christians," the pontiff said.
Speaking for the Muslim delegation, Seyyed Hossein Nasr of Iran, a professor of Islamic studies at
George Washington University in Washington, said earlier that both Christians and Muslims
"believe in religious freedom."
However, he said: "We Muslims do not allow an aggressive proselytising in our midst that would
destroy our faith in the name of freedom, any more than would Christians if they were in our
situation."
Retrieved from CathNews
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=10016

Vatican move on Anglicans no threat to ecumenism

By Damir Govorcin, Catholic Weekly, 1 November, 2009
The establishment of personal ordinariates for Anglicans wishing to enter the Catholic Church in
no way changes the ecumenical commitment of the Church which will continue its dialogue and
collaboration with the larger Anglican Communion with unabated enthusiasm, says Bishop Michael
Putney, chairman of the Bishops Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-religious Relations.
Anglican groups which have been petitioning Rome to enter into full communion with the Catholic
Church will be able to do so, following an announcement by the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith on October 20.
These Anglican groups will be able to come into full communion with the Catholic Church, while
still retaining much of their Anglican ethos, liturgy and spirituality, and their pastoral practice,
Bishop Putney said.
The bishop said that this was not an initiative which had been taken by the Catholic Church, but
was rather responding to petitions which had been received over a four or five-year period from
different Anglican groups.
There has always been a practice of receiving into full communion individual Anglicans through
the centuries, but this new provision will make it possible for groups or communities to enter full
communion and remain together, he said.
Whether there are sufficient Anglicans in Australia who would seek to be members of a personal
ordinariate remains to be seen.
Any decision about what will happen in Australia belongs entirely to the Australian Catholic
Bishops Conference, which would act in agreement with decisions of the Holy See.
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia and Archbishop of Brisbane, Dr Phillip Aspinal,
said there have been strong relations with the Catholic Church for more than 40 years built
through theological dialogue and co-operation.
This development is possible because of that history and I expect relationships between the two
Communions will continue to be rich and productive, he said.
There continue to be differences between the Churches and sometimes developments in either
Communion raise further issues that need to be addressed.
http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=1&subclassID=2&articleID=6219&class=Lat
est News&subclass=CW National

Feature - Defrosting the Russian Orthodox schism

Published: January 26, 2010

Pope Benedict XVI is turning out to be ecumenically audacious. For this he has faced criticism,
misunderstanding and accusations of insensitivity. But Pope Benedict and Patriarch Kirill of the
Russian Orthodox Church seem now to be making progress in preparing the ground to overcome
the Great Schism of 1054.
When I was in Russia late last year the Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, commented on the
imperative aim of both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI to build "a dialogue of truth and
charity" with the Orthodox.
He emphasised how vital this was and thanked Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) for its work in
supporting Catholic, Orthodox and ecumenical projects in Russia:
"We have to encourage the Catholic community to show solidarity to the Orthodox. The initiative of
Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI is so important. Thank you for all that the charity does
for the Church and for building relations with the Orthodox, in line with the will of the Holy Father...
and Our Lord!"
He continued, reflecting on the great sufferings of all Christians in Soviet times: "We must find
courage to turn the pages of history."
But it is not only Catholics who wish to "turn the pages of history" and establish an understanding,
with a deeper respect.
Archpriest Fr Igor Vyzhanov, Secretary for inter-Christian Affairs at the Moscow Patriarchate, told
me: "We have a common heritage, a common mission and challenges in common - both Catholics
and Orthodox. We need your prayers and charity."
So what underlies these recent changes in attitude? Where has this new energy come from,
pushing towards a mutual recognition and some theological and ecclesial agreement?

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=18990

Cardinal asks dialogue partners if an ecumenical catechism might work

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service, Feb-8-2010
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Vatican official has floated the idea of a shared "ecumenical catechism" as one
of the potential fruits of 40 years of dialogue among Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists and
members of the Reformed churches.
"We have affirmed our common foundation in Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity as expressed in our
common creed and in the doctrine of the first ecumenical councils," Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of
the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told representatives of the churches.
Opening a three-day symposium at the Vatican to brainstorm on the future of ecumenism, Cardinal Kasper
said it is essential "to keep alive the memory of our achievements" in dialogue, educate the faithful about
how much has been accomplished and prepare a new generation to carry on the work.
He said the members of his council "proposed an ecumenical catechism that would be written in
consultation with our partners," but "we do not yet have any idea how such a catechism could be structured
and written."
One thing for sure, he said, is that there is a need for "an ecumenism of basics that identifies, reinforces
and deepens the common foundation" of faith in Christ and belief in the tenets of the creed. The churches
may hold those positions officially, but if their members do not hold firmly to the basics of Christian faith, the
dialogue cannot move forward, the cardinal said.
Cardinal Kasper, a theologian who will be 77 in March and has led the council for nine years, also said that
ecumenical dialogue "is perhaps in danger of becoming a matter for specialists and thus of moving away
from the grassroots."
He called for "a people-centered ecumenism" that would support and give new energy to the theological
dialogues.
The symposium was a follow-up to the publication in October of "Harvesting the Fruits," a book complied by
Cardinal Kasper and his staff summarizing the results of 40 years of official Catholic dialogue with the
Anglican Communion, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Methodist Council and the World Alliance
of Reformed Churches.
As for questions that still must be tackled in order for Christians to reach full unity and be able to share the
Eucharist, the cardinal identified two basic areas: a common understanding of the church and its structure;
and a common approach to applying the Gospel to modern social and moral concerns without falling into
relativism.
Ethical issues, such as homosexuality and women's equality, not only divide churches, he said, they raise
more fundamental questions for modern and post-modern society, such as, "What is man, and what does it
mean to be a man or woman in God's plan?"
In the area of church structure and ministry, he said, the dialogues have seen progress toward a common
agreement on the sacramental nature of ordination and on apostolic succession in the ministry of bishops,
and have taken initial steps toward discussing the primacy of the bishop of Rome, the pope.
But on a more basic level, the dialogues must get into "not only what is the church, but where is the
church? Has God given his church a specific structure or has he left the church to find its own structure, in
such a way that a pluralism of structures is possible?" Cardinal Kasper asked.
The cardinal said the Vatican needs to better explain to its dialogue partners the Catholic conviction that
"the Catholic Church is the church of Christ and that the Catholic Church is the true church," even while
"there exist many and important elements of the church of Christ outside the visible boundaries of the
Catholic Church."
The Catholic Church does believe "there are deficits in the other churches," he said. "Yet on another level
there are deficits, or rather wounds stemming from division and wounds deriving from sin, also in the
Catholic Church."
Ecumenical dialogue is the place where all Christians "learn to grow and mature in their faithfulness to
Christ," he said, and as each moves closer to Christ, they naturally will move closer to each other.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1000540.htm

Pope prays Assisi pilgrimage will foster dialogue, peace

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
Oct-26-2011
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI prayed that his interreligious pilgrimage to Assisi would promote dialogue
among believers of different faiths and help the world move toward peace and reconciliation.
"In a world still torn by hatred, divisions, selfishness and wars, we want to pray that tomorrow's meeting in Assisi
would promote dialogue among people of different religions," the pope said Oct. 26 during a prayer service at the
Vatican.
Pope Benedict prayed that the Assisi meeting would help "enlighten the minds and hearts of all men and women so
that anger would give way to pardon, division to reconciliation, hatred to love, violence to meekness, so that peace
would reign in the world."
"We ask God for the gift of peace. We want to pray that he make us instruments of his peace," the pope said at the
Christian prayer service, which was attended by cardinals and bishops, as well as Orthodox and Protestant leaders.
Several Muslim representatives also were present.
The prayer service took the place of the pope's weekly general audience. About 25,000 people were expected for the
service planned for St. Peter's Square, but a rainstorm forced the Vatican to pack the Vatican audience hall to
overflowing and to accommodate others in St. Peter's Basilica, where Pope Benedict stopped briefly to give his
blessing.
In his homily during the prayer service, Pope Benedict said Christ came to bring peace to the world and his followers
have a serious obligation to proclaim his love, salvation and peace to all peoples.
The instrument Christ used to inaugurate his kingdom of peace was the cross, the pope said. Love, and not weapons,
is the key.
Those who want to be true disciples of Christ, he said, also must be ready "to lose their lives for him, so that
goodness, love and peace will triumph in the world."
The Gospel says Jesus sent his disciples out as "lambs among the wolves," the pope said. "Christians must never
give in to the temptation to become 'wolves among the wolves'; the kingdom of Christ's peace is not spread with
power, strength or violence, but with self-giving, with love taken to the extreme, even toward one's enemies."
Christians must begin by making their own communities "islands of peace" where differences of race, language and
economic standing have no importance, he said.
The readings for the prayer service were in English and Italian; the prayer petitions were read in German, Polish,
French, Portuguese, Swahili, Arabic, Spanish and Chinese.
The prayers asked God for the gifts "of wisdom and intelligence that make us disciples of truth," for the strength
needed "to discover the paths of true peace," and for forgiveness for "our pride, for the selfishness and the violence
that often accompanies our choices and lifestyles."
The prayer in Arabic asked God to help Christians treasure the word and example of Jesus and "stay far from war and
violence in all its forms."
--Editor's Note: The text of the pope's remarks in English will be posted online at:
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20111026_en.html.
The text of the pope's remarks in Spanish will be posted online at:
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20111026_sp.html.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1104208.htm

The need for mutual tolerance

By George Cardinal Pell
25 March, 2012
About seven years ago I visited Lebanon, travelled widely, meeting the President and the Muslim leaders of
the Sunni and the Shiites.
The Sunni leader asked me to protect the civic rights of Muslims in Australia. I willingly promised this and
have worked regularly to this end.
He also praised the situation in the Ottoman Empire, where Christians, second-class citizens, had to walk
on the other side of the road from Muslims so they would be safe. I did not understand this was a serious
government initiative then to protect Christians from mob violence.
Unfortunately in some African and Middle Eastern societies Christian minorities in majority-Muslim
countries have lost the protection of their societies where radical Islamist (Salafist) movements have
poisoned public opinion.
Terrorist attacks on Christians have increased by over 300 per cent between 2003 and 2010. Thousands of
Middle Eastern Christians are emigrating, some to Australia where they are already working hard and
settling in peaceably.
Unfortunately these attacks are not always the work of vigilantes and rebel groups (as in Nigeria), but
sometimes perpetrated by agents of the government, as the Copts suffered in the Maspero area of Cairo
on 9 October last year.
Archbishop Tomasi, the Holy Sees observer to the United Nations in Geneva, pointed out that increasing
restrictions on religion affect more than 2.2 billion people.
Christians are not the only victims of anti-religious violence, and sometimes they are not blameless
themselves. Islamaphobia is real, but usually not expressed in bombings, attacks or killings.
We should not be blaming the innocent, as most of the violence is not centrally planned or co-ordinated.
The terrorist groups are well contained at least for the moment.
But the damage done is real and continuing and people of good will, religious or irreligious, should support
the rights of everyone, including minorities, to practise a religion or no religion.
Freedom of religion is a fundamental right of each person, not a government grant, and has to be
acknowledged even where we find an official national religion.
It is unacceptable that over 1 million Christians in Saudi-Arabia have no churches, and are not able to
attend public or private worship.
The Grand Mufti there has called for the destruction of all churches in the Arabian Peninsula.
Mutual tolerance and respect are demanded of us all. Aid and trade should be used to encourage states to
protect the freedom to worship and believe.
+ George Cardinal Pell
Archbishop of Sydney

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atures&subclass=Cardinal's%20Comment