Pope Francis names new Indian cardinal to lead Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue

 — Jan. 24, 202524 janv. 2025

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has named Indian Cardinal George J. Koovakad to be the new prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.

The 51-year-old, who received his red hat from the pope in December, also will continue to be responsible for organizing papal trips abroad, Vatican News reported Jan. 24, the day his appointment was announced.

The dicastery is responsible for dialogue with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and members of other world religions.

“The Dicastery works to ensure that dialogue with the followers of other religions takes place in an appropriate way, with an attitude of listening, esteem and respect,” according to the apostolic constitution governing the Roman Curia.

The dicastery “fosters various kinds of relations with them so that, through the contribution of all, peace, freedom, social justice, the protection and safeguarding of creation, and spiritual and moral values may be promoted,” the constitution says.

Cardinal Koovakad succeeds Spanish Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot who died in November after dedicating his priestly life and ministry to building bridges between Catholics and Muslims.

In an interview with Vatican News Jan. 24, Cardinal Koovakad said he was a bit nervous taking over at the dicastery, but “I rely heavily on the prayers of all those who continue to dream of a world where religious differences not only coexist peacefully but become essential elements in building peace among peoples.”

A Syro-Malabar Catholic and career Vatican diplomat, Cardinal Koovakad has experience living, working and ministering in countries where Catholics are a minority and interreligious dialogue is an accepted fact of life.

Born in Chethipuzha in India’s southern Kerala state Aug. 11, 1973, he was ordained a priest of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Changanacherry in 2004.

He earned a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome in 2006 and joined the Holy See’s diplomatic service that same year. He worked in Vatican nunciatures in Algeria, South Korea, Iran, Costa Rica and Venezuela.

“I was born and raised in a multicultural and multireligious society where all religions are respected and harmony is preserved,” he told Vatican News. “Diversity is a richness!”

“Christians are called to be seeds of fraternity for all,” he said. “This does not mean giving up one’s identity but rather being aware that identity should never be a reason to build walls or discriminate against others. Instead, it should always be an opportunity to build bridges.”

In 2020, Cardinal Koovakad began working in the General Affairs Section of the Vatican Secretariat of State. He joined Pope Francis on his trip to Greece and Cyprus in December 2021 and has been organizing the pope’s foreign trips since then.

In that role, he has coordinated a dozen papal trips, including several where interreligious dialogue was a main feature, including trips to Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Mongolia and the pope’s trip in September to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore—the longest trip of Pope Francis’ pontificate.

Posted: Jan. 24, 2025 • Permanent link: ecumenism.net/?p=14484
Categories: CNSIn this article: Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, George Koovakad
Transmis : 24 janv. 2025 • Lien permanente : ecumenism.net/?p=14484
Catégorie : CNSDans cet article : Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, George Koovakad


Friends and supporters of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, which started in Saskatoon in 1984, gathered for a 40th anniversary celebration held at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Prairie Centre for Ecumenism’s 40th anniversary

 — Jan. 21, 202521 janv. 2025

Fond memories of early-morning worship services at different Saskatoon churches during the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity were shared at a recent 40th anniversary celebration for the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, founded in Saskatoon in 1984.

At the 40th anniversary celebration Nov. 22, 2024, Prairie Centre for Ecumenism Board Chair Mary Nordick pointed to the early-morning gatherings on cold and dark prairie mornings in January as times filled with the warmth of fellowship and the joy of re-connecting with friends from other Christian traditions.

Rev. Dr. Sandra Beardsall – a United Church minister and professor emeritus of Church History and Ecumenics who has been involved in the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism (PCE) in various ways over the past 25 years — also shared memories of those early morning gatherings.

“I think those will stay with me all my life,” she said. “I would get up and say ‘what am I doing? It is minus 30!’ And then there would be this beautiful prayer service, and breakfast, and friends … there is something so precious about that praying together early, early in the morning.”
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The Parliament of Canada. Photo taken from the north facing south towards the Parliamentary Library in the centre with the Peace Tower in the background

Charitable status risks even with prorogation

 — Jan. 17, 202517 janv. 2025

The resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Liberal Party leader and the prorogation of Parliament may have postponed a non-confidence vote and an immediate election, but has not averted the risk of certain organizations losing their charitable status on the basis of religious belief or disagreement with government policy, say experts speaking on behalf of stakeholders.

The finance committee of the House of Commons has tabled a report which, if enshrined in law, could destabilize the entire charitable sector, according to legal experts of two major organizations.

The controversial recommendations from the committee are:

  • Anti-abortion organizations should no longer be accorded charitable status;
  • The Income Tax Act should be amended to provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of “advancement of religion” as a charitable purpose.

“The issue is an important one,” Deina Warren, director of legal affairs with the Canadian Centre for Christian Charities (CCCC), told The Catholic Register. “The recommendation has been formally made by a House Committee and ought to be officially retracted, and advancing of religion as a charitable purpose should be positively affirmed by the government.”
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Icon of the Council of Nicaea. The text in the large scroll is the beginning of the Nicene Creed in Greek

Do You Believe This? | One Body

 — Jan. 17, 202517 janv. 2025

When Jesus comes to Mary and Martha in Bethany after the death of Lazarus, he says to Martha “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” And then he asks her, “Do you believe this?” Martha responds, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world” (John 11:25-27). This exchange prepares us for the miracle of the raising of Lazarus: one who believed, yet even though he died, he lived. Like Lazarus, we who believe, even though we will die, will be raised by Jesus into eternal life.

“Do you believe this?” Jesus’ question puts us on the spot. Our belief, or profession of faith, determines whether we will inherit eternal life. At the same time, in other passages in the Gospels, Jesus reminds us that love of God is the greatest commandment, “and the second is like it,” to love our neighbour as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31). “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to the least of these [the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, or imprisoned], you did not do it to me” (Matthew 25:45).

In every time, every place, and every way, Christians are called to profess their faith in Christ. Faith in God cannot be limited to simple dogmatic formulas but must embrace our whole heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:36; Mark 12:30). Faith compels us to order our lives in conformity with Christ’s command to care for the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, and imprisoned. What we have done or left undone exposes the imperfections of our profession of faith. So, Jesus’ question “Do you believe this?” is weighted with enormous significance for our lives in this world and the next.
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This aerial handout photograph taken and released by India's Uttar Pradesh State Information Department shows Hindu pilgrims taking a holy dip in the sacred waters of the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati rivers, during the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj

Indian diocese welcomes Hindus for millennia-old Hindu festival

 — Jan. 16, 202516 janv. 2025

An Indian diocese has opened its facilities to welcome Hindu pilgrims during a six-week festival in a northern city, hailing it as a “wonderful experience of faith.” Organizers of the millennia-old Maha Kumbh Mela, a mammoth expression of religious piety and ritual bathing that opened on Jan. 13, expect 400 million people in the city of Prayagraj, earlier called Allahabad.

“You have to see it to believe it,” Bishop Louis Mascarenhas of Allahabad in the northern Uttar Pradesh state told UCA News on Jan. 15. “We have thrown open three of our educational institutions — St Joseph College, St Mary’s Convent Inter College, and Bethany Convent School — for the convenience of Hindu pilgrims during the entire duration of the festival,” Mascarenhas said. He said the pilgrims were driven by their faith to take the holy dip in the cold waters despite the temperatures hovering around 4 to 5 degrees Celsius.

Hindus believe that during the auspicious period, a ritual bath in the confluence of the holy rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswathi can wash away sins, free them from the cycle of rebirth, and help them attain moksha (salvation).

The Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj attracts Hindus worldwide as it occurs only once every 12 years. Many pilgrims begin bathing in the waters before sunrise during the festival scheduled to culminate on Feb. 26.
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Pope Francis speaks with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel during a private meeting in the papal studio of the Vatican audience hall

Cuba to release 553 prisoners for Jubilee at pope’s request

 — Jan. 15, 202515 janv. 2025

Taking up the spirit of the recently inaugurated Holy Year 2025, the Cuban government has announced the release of 553 people currently serving prison sentences.

Cuba said it would gradually release the prisoners “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025 declared by His Holiness” following a “thorough analysis” of the legal and humanitarian avenues to enact their release, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement Jan. 14.

The statement did not specify who would be among the 553 prisoners designated to be released.

That same day, the White House announced that it will no longer designate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and that it would eliminate some restrictions on Cuba.

The White House said the actions were steps “to support the Cuban people as part of an understanding with the Catholic Church under the leadership of Pope Francis and improve the livelihoods of Cubans.”
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Pope Francis reviews and initials each page of the manuscript of

Pope Francis acknowledges mistakes and defends most controversial decisions in new autobiography

 — Jan. 14, 202514 janv. 2025

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While calling himself an “old man” and saying he never expected to be pope this long, Pope Francis said he still has dreams for the future.

“We must not stumble upon tomorrow, we must build it, and we all have the responsibility to do so in a way that responds to the project of God, which is none other than the happiness of mankind, the centrality of mankind, without excluding anyone,” the 88-year-old pope wrote in his autobiography.

“Hope: The Autobiography” was written with the Italian editor Carlo Musso beginning in 2019. The book was released Jan. 14 in its original Italian and in 17 other languages in about 100 countries. Random House published the book in the United States, and Penguin Random House Canada released it in Canada.

The original plan, Musso said, was for the book to be released after Pope Francis’ death. But Mondadori, the Italian publisher coordinating the release, said the pope decided in August that it should be published at the beginning of the Holy Year 2025, which has hope as its central theme.
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The Vatican City flag, left, and a pride flag

Vatican approves document allowing openly gay men to become priests in Italy

 — Jan. 13, 202513 janv. 2025

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — A provisional document published by the Italian Bishops’ Conference on Friday (Jan. 10) and approved by the Vatican cautiously opens the door for the ordination of openly gay men to the priesthood, while maintaining the normal requirement of chastity.

“In the formative process, when referring to homosexual tendencies, it’s also appropriate not to reduce discernment only to this aspect, but, as for every candidate, to grasp its meaning in the global framework of the young person’s personality,” the document reads, adding that the goal is for the candidate to know himself and find harmony between his human and priestly vocation.

The Vatican department for clergy approved the document, which will be valid for three years. The document was signed by the head of the Italian bishops, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who is considered a close collaborator to Pope Francis.
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Fresco dated 1590 in the Salone Sistina at the Vatican depicting the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) by Giovanni Guerra (1544-1618), Cesare Nebbia (1534-1614) and others

The Council of Nicaea – Jesus or Dionysus?

 — Jan. 9, 20259 janv. 2025

The Arians believed that Jesus was a created being and not fully divine; these ideas were condemned at Nicaea in 325, but continue to resurface. The hope of the former preacher to the papal household is that this seventeenth centenary year will see a reawakening of faith in the divinity of Christ and in the trinity of God.

The year 2025 marks the seventeenth centenary of the Ecumenical Council held in the city of Nicaea (now Iznik, Turkey) in the early months of 325. The creed sanctioned by that council unites Christians of the historic Churches – Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican – and the various denominations that go under the name of “Evangelical” and “Pentecostal”. This centenary provides us with a unique opportunity – one that only at this point in history are we able to grasp – to acknowledge and celebrate together the faith that unites all believers in Christ.

It also offers us another, no less important opportunity: to take a reconnaissance flight that looks at faith in Christ in the modern and post-modern world and compares where we stand today to the faith of Nicaea. In the aftermath of a local council held in Rimini in 359, dominated by opponents of Nicaea, St Jerome wrote: “The whole world groaned and was astonished to find itself Arian.” We must ask ourselves whether, by chance, we have an even greater reason today to let out such a groan.
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The WCC delegation meeting with Indigenous Clergy and church leaders at the Epiphany Indigenous Anglican Church, Winnipeg

Churches in Canada welcome WCC general secretary

 — Dec. 10, 202410 déc. 2024

Travelling to Winnipeg following time in Toronto, Pillay participated in a tour of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, met with Indigenous church leaders, had an ecumenical dinner with young adults, visited the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, spoke at a panel discussion co-hosted by the Manitoba Multifaith Council and shared a breakfast at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada National Office with church leaders and representatives. 

“It has been so great to be with you,” Pillay said. “We are pilgrims and continue to co-pilgrim together. If there is one message, one takeaway from the past few days, it is this: You are not alone; we are with you. Worldwide, globally, we stand together. Whatever you experience in this part of the world, we would love to journey with you and be as helpful as we can and seek your guidance as we speak into the situation from the outside.
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