CATHOLIC CENTERS AND THE CHALLENGE OF CULTURAL DIALOGUE

VATICAN CITY, JUL 8, 2005 (VIS) - An international meeting of Catholic cultural centers in the Mediterranean has been organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture, in collaboration with the "Hrvatsko Kulturno Drustvo Napredak" Center of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The theme of the gathering is: "The Challenge of a new Cultural Dialogue in the Context of Globalization."

  The meeting, which was inaugurated in Sarajevo this morning by Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, is due to last until July 10. It is part of a series of encounters - that began in Barcelona, Spain, in 1996 - on the challenges faced by Catholic cultural centers in the Mediterranean.

  Among other themes, participants will consider that of dialogue with Byzantine culture and with Muslims in the light of migration, as well as the challenge of dialogue with the world of non-believers: secularization in the West, and the heritage of communism in the East.

  The "Napredak" (Progress) Center - which includes Nobel prize-winners Ivo Andric (literature) and Vladimir Prelog (science) among its former pupils - was founded in 1902 and is located within the archdiocese of Sarajevo. It remained closed under the communist regime but reopened in 1990. It currently has 20,000 members and 66 branches throughout the world.
CON-C/MEETING CATHOLIC CENTERS/POUPARD            VIS 20050708 (220)