Mumbai: Christian, Hindu and Muslim experts discuss Laudato si’
An international seminar took place today under the auspices of the Consulate General of Argentina. Leading figures from three major religions spoke at the event, which provided an “opportunity to bring together some of the values” of the Argentinian government “with a social document of Pope Francis” and “the richness of Indian thought and the long tradition of India”.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) – An international seminar on the environmental teachings underpinning Pope Francis’s Laudato si’ encyclical and its relationship to the Hindu tradition took place today in Mumbai under the auspices of the Consulate General of the Argentine Republic in Mumbai, K J Somaiya Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham (KJSBSP), and Somaiya Vidyavihar.
Titled ‘The Teachings of Pope Francis on Ecology and the Care for Nature with its Parallels in Hinduism’, “the seminar is a means of contributing to the awareness of the problem from a perspective of three of the main religions of the world,” Argentina's Consul General Alejandro Zothner Meyer told AsiaNews. “This purpose implies that we consider interreligious dialogue as a very important way to solve some of the main problems of humanity.”
The conference was held at SIMSR Building Somaiya Vidyavihar Campus with Mgr John Rodrigues, auxiliary bishop of Mumbai, making the formal opening. Speakers included Prof Dilip Kulkarni, environmentalist who spoke about the living green in Hindu philosophy, Prof Mohammad Sanaullah from Aligarh Muslim University who addressed ecology from an Islamic perspective, Prof Mariano Iturbe who offered a Christian perspective, and Swami Sarvalokanandaji, a senior monk from the Ramakrishna Math Institute who gave a Hindu point of view.
For the consul, “organising an event like this one in India is an important landmark. The aim is to focus on a major document” based on “the social teaching of the Catholic Church that talks about the protection of the environment and to find out its parallelism with the teachings of Hinduism” and Islam.
“Before being designated Pope, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, first as Auxiliary Bishop and then as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, contributed personally to this interreligious dialogue with many Protestant, Jewish and Muslim leaders of Argentina,” Consul Zothner Meyer explained.
“As Pope Francis he continues with this trend. This Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si, that he presented to all men and women of good will, is a call to all of us, to take care of ‘our common house’, our planet, before it is too late.”
According to the consul, " India has some of the oldest and richest cultural traditions. Being in India as an Argentinian Diplomat, and personally being involved in my country in the interreligious dialogue, I thought that organizing this event would be an opportunity to bring together some of the values my Government applies, with a social document of Pope Francis (an Argentinian citizen) and to put together with the richness of Indian thought and the long tradition of India as a country were, although Hinduism represents the great majority, many religions lived together peacefully.”
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