Interreligious friendships are consolation amid wars, pope says

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis began a meeting with participants in a Focolare-sponsored conference by telling the movement's president, "I pray for your homeland; I pray so much for your homeland, which is suffering at this time."

The president, Margaret Karram, is a Palestinian Catholic born in Haifa, Israel.

She led participants in an international interreligious conference to the Vatican June 3 for their meeting with the pope. The conference began May 31 in Castel Gandolfo and was to conclude June 4 in Assisi.

Pope Francis thanked Karram and Focolare members for continuing their dialogue "with people of non-Christian religions who share the spirituality of unity. It has been a revolutionary journey that is so good for the church."

Interreligious dialogue and friendship, the pope said, "is an experience animated by the Holy Spirit, rooted, we can say, in the heart of Christ, in his thirst for love, communion and fraternity."

The foundation of dialogue with Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Sikhs and others is "the love of God expressed through mutual love, listening, trust, hospitality and getting to know one another, all the while fully respecting each other's identities," the pope said. "Over time, friendship and cooperation have grown in seeking to respond together to the cry of the poor, in caring for creation and in working for peace."

The Focolare movement's long focus on promoting unity and dialogue has led many members of other religions to associate themselves with the movement's spirituality or values and to live them in the midst of their co-religionists, the pope said. "With these men and women, we transcend dialogue, we feel like brothers and sisters, sharing the dream of a more united world, in the harmony of diversity."

The dialogue and the bonds among participants, Pope Francis said, "is a source of joy and consolation, especially in this time of conflict, when religion is often misused in order to fuel division."

"Interreligious dialogue 'is a necessary condition for peace in the world, and so it is a duty for Christians as well as other religious communities,'" the pope said, quoting his 2013 exhortation, "The Joy of the Gospel."