WELCOME
Dear Friends,
Who are visiting this page: I wish to welcome you and share with you some thoughts concerning our two religions.
We, Catholics and Buddhists, enjoy a good relationship and our bi-monthly joint meetings have helped to deepen our understanding of each other. Dialogue is the sure path to fruitful inter-religious relations. Dialogue, in fact, deepens respect and nurtures the desire to live in harmony with others.
The Catholic Church teaches that the entire human race shares a common origin and a common destiny: God, our Creator and the goal of our earthly pilgrimage. We believe also that each individual human being has the dignity of a person; he/she is not just something, but someone, capable of self-knowledge, self-possession, free self-giving and entering into communion with others.
We are convinced that dialogue between individuals and peoples is not only possible but mandatory. We need to learn about others and other people's beliefs in order to overcome prejudices and misunderstandings. This requires much effort on the part of religious leaders. Even in places where people experience daily the ravages of war, fuelled by sentiments of hatred and vengeance, trust can be restored. Together we can help to create the space and the opportunities for people to talk, listen, share regrets and offer forgiveness for each other's past mistakes.
Education for peace is a responsibility which must be borne by religions.
SOME FACTS:
Buddhists and Christians have lived among each other from the early years of Christianity. Small communities of Christians existed in India, possibly as early as the first century C.E., and certainly by the 7th century, at which time there was also a Christian community in China.
Today large Buddhist and Christian communities live side by side in many different countries, especially here in Chicago. In Chicago a unique situation for Buddhism has developed: namely, all the major Buddhist schools and ethnic traditions, each with its own language and customs, are to be found here. The coming to Chicago of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and the renewed interest in Buddhism, with its different schools, stimulate the dialogue.
TEACHING OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
There is a new openness towards other religions in Catholicism, promulgated by the decree, "
Nostra Aetate," (Declaration of Non-Christian Religions) of the Second Vatican council in 1965. It reads:
“Human beings expect from the various religions answers to the unsolved riddles of the human condition deeply stir the hearts of men: What is man? What is the meaning, the aim of our life? What is moral good, what sin? Whence suffering and what purpose does it serve ? Which is the road to true happiness? What are death, judgment and retribution after death? What, finally, is that ultimate inexpressible mystery which encompasses our existence: whence do we come, and where are we going?
Religions have struggled to answer the same questions.
Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing "ways," comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites.
The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all human beings.
The Church exhorts her children, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, found among these people.
The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion.”
COMMITTED TO DIALOGUE
These simple sentences set the stage for a real dialogue.
Among Catholics, “Nostra Aetate” initiated a fundamental change in the way the Church viewed other religions. For the first time it encouraged dialogue with them. A profound re-thinking and appreciation of the intrinsic validity of other religions has gone on.
Catholics have become eager to explore and learn about other religions. Dialogue for both groups has became timely and appropriated.
The Buddhist Leaders have agreed to enter the dialogue in spite of some feelings of reticence. Fears and distrust of Christians formed during the colonial period still linger among much of the Buddhist population.
Nevertheless, some of them had developed friendly relations with leaders of other religious groups, particularly with the Roman Catholics, and were able to assuage the fears of their colleagues
Since the essence of Buddhism is to abandon all forms of attachments, its hallmark has been not to criticize or condemn any other religion. The Buddha himself often visited other religious centers and leaders, and followers of Buddhism have often been encouraged to study and experience different systems of religion or philosophy.
OUR EXPERINCE
The dialogue is sponsored by Buddhist leaders, and by the Archdiocesan Catholic Office of Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs. It started some years ago, and it has become an un-official, on-going, core group for dialogue. Meetings are held every two months, rotating between Buddhist and Catholic locations.
During these meetings we brush aside proselytism and we give reasons for our faith becoming aware that we have gifts to give each other and we have gifts to receive from each other.
We come to realize that there are vast differences in our histories and spiritual lives. Yet, we strive to enter into dialogue with a spirit of openness. Our expectation that eventually we could understand each other have not been disappointed.
We have come to realize that learning about each other's tradition was learning the vocabulary that it uses to express itself. This has proved to be more difficult that one might have expected, because the vocabulary comes from such different worlds.
Many words such as “God”,“soul”, an-atman (no-soul), “creation”, “emptiness” etc. have no reference in the other tradition.
The new questions arising from the dialogue and the fresh approaches we have to take require us to look anew at our own traditions, and to see inconsistencies. We are challenged to articulate to one another what we took for granted among ourselves, giving us new perspective on our own beliefs.
Each of the religious traditions seeks to draw people towards a greater, purer more loving reality than that found in the ordinary human context of life, so that human beings may realize their full potential.
OUR ACTIVITIES
To achieve these goals we have:
- Bi-Monthly meetings
If you intend to attend you can contact pastor at 312-842-6777
