Vatican City, 15 May 2014 (VIS) –
Yesterday afternoon the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies
(Amman, Jordan) and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious
Dialogue concluded their Third Colloquium in the Jordanian capital.
Held under the joint patronage of His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan
bin Talal and His Eminence Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of
the Vatican dicastery, the theme chosen this year was “Meeting
current challenges through education”.
At the end of the meeting which, as
mentioned by the participants, took place on the eve of Pope Francis'
visit to the Holy Land, considered a source of hope for all the
populations in this region – a communique was issued, beginning
with a strong condemnation of “all forms of violence, and most
recently the kidnapping of the Nigerian school girls”, calling for
“their immediate release, so that they can return to their families
and their schools”. They also advocated peaceful resolutions to all
ongoing conflicts.
The participants stated that the
discussion, which took place in an atmosphere of cordiality and
friendship, allowed them to agree on the following points:
- the fundamental institutions for the
education of children and youth are the family and the school;
- the importance of proper religious
education, in particular for the transmission of religious and moral
values;
- the necessary consideration of the
dignity of the human person, especially in educational institutions;
- there is widespread disregard for the
international provisions aimed at guaranteeing the effective respect
of fundamental human rights, in particular religious freedom;
- the most urgent challenges to meet
include the peaceful resolution of current conflicts, the eradication
of poverty and the promotion of the spiritual and moral dimension of
life;
- the conviction that religion is not
the cause of conflicts, but rather inhumanity and ignorance;
consequently integral education is essential;
- many recalled that religions,
properly understood and practised, are not causes of division and
conflicts but rather a necessary factor for reconciliation and peace.
As believers, we hope that human wisdom
would always meet the wisdom of God.
Finally, as the future of humanity is
in the hands of the young generations, we propose the following
Cultural Decalogue for everyone involved in education:
1) Never renounce intellectual
curiosity;
2) Have intellectual courage instead of
intellectual cowardice;
3) Be humble and not intellectually
arrogant;
4) Practice intellectual empathy
instead of closed mindedness;
5) Observe intellectual integrity;
6) Keep your intellectual autonomy;
7) Persevere in the face of surrounding
superficiality;
8) Trust reason;
9) Be fair-minded and not
intellectually unfair;
10) Consider pluralism as richness, not
a threat.
Finally, they declared their intention
to will continue our fruitful dialogue through future colloquia and
other initiatives.
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