Senior Vatican official sends Diwali greetings

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News Bharati English    29-Oct-2013
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undefinedVatican City, October 29: The Vatican's inter-religious dialogue chief has sent greetings for the upcoming Diwali festival stressing the common humanity shared by Christians, Hindus and other religions, ethnicities and cultures.

"In a spirit of friendship, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue extends to you best wishes and cordial greetings," Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran said in a message.

"May God, the source of all light and life, illumine your lives and deepen your happiness and peace," he said.

The message urged Christians and Hindus to foster human relationships based on "friendship and solidarity".

"Regardless of our ethnic, cultural, religious and ideological differences, all of us belong to the one human family," it said.

"May we, Hindus and Christians, work individually and collectively, with all religious traditions and people of goodwill, to foster and strengthen the human family through friendship and solidarity," the message concluded.

Tauran is president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, the Vatican's inter-faith dialogue body.

“When it is jeopardized or denied, all other human rights are endangered. Religious freedom necessarily includes immunity from coercion by any individual, group, community or institution,” they explained.

The message comes after several years of tensions and anti-Christian violence in some parts of India.
The Vatican council said that the human freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion or belief can take place in public or private, alone or in a community.

The right to religious freedom also involves a “serious obligation” from civil authorities, individuals and groups to respect the freedom of others. It also includes the freedom to change one’s own religion.

undefinedThe council’s letter observed that respect for religious freedom allows believers to be “more enthusiastic” about cooperating with their fellow citizens to build “a just and human social order.” Its denial stifles and frustrates “authentic and lasting peace.”

The council noted areas like the defense of life and the dignity of the family, the education of children, honesty in daily life and the preservation of natural resources as areas in which believers can make a specific contribution to the common good.

“Let us strive, then, to join hands in promoting religious freedom as our shared responsibility, by asking the leaders of nations never to disregard the religious dimension of the human person,” the council said.

“We cordially wish you a joyful celebration of Deepavali.”

In 2011 the then Pope Benedict too had extended Diwali greetings to Hindus and the Indian diaspora welcomed this gesture of the pope.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) in 2011, had welcomed the Vatican for sending "cordial greetings" on Deepavali and the suggestion to "make religions channels of peace and harmony".

Zed, who headed the Universal Society of Hinduism, extolled Vatican's wish on the occasion, which said: "May God, the source of all light, illumine your hearts, homes and communities for a life of peace and prosperity".

Rajan Zed also commended Pope Benedict XVI for reportedly including verse from ancient Hindu scripture Upanishads in the Good Friday Meditations and Prayers led by him at Roman Colosseum in 2009. Zed, commenting that it was a remarkable gesture from Pope, invited him to study more ancient Hindu scriptures, which were very rich in philosophical thought.

Diwali, the Indian festival of lights beginning Sunday, symbolises the victory of good over evil, truth over falsehood, and life over death, the message recalled, adding that its roots lay in ancient mythology.