HOLY SEE: CARD. TAURAN’S MESSAGE TO THE MUSLIMS FOR THE END OF RAMADAN

“The poor question us, they challenge us, but above all they invite us to cooperate in a noble cause: overcoming poverty!”. These words come at the end of the message addressed by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue through its president, card. Jean-louis Tauran, to the “dear Muslim friends” on the occasion of the feast of îd al-fiṭr which is celebrated in the Muslim world at the end of the 30-day fast period of Ramadan (which began last 21 August in Italy). This year’s message is entitled “Christians and Muslims: Together in overcoming poverty”. “We all know – card. Tauran wrote - that poverty has the power to humiliate and to engender intolerable sufferings; it is often a source of isolation, anger, even hatred and the desire for revenge. It can provoke hostile actions using any available means, even seeking to justify them on religious grounds, or seizing another man’s wealth, together with his peace and security, in the name of an alleged ‘divine justice’. This is why confronting the phenomena of extremism and violence necessarily implies tackling poverty through the promotion of integral human development”. The message distinguishes to types of poverty: “a poverty to be combated and a poverty to be embraced”.
“The poverty to be combated is before the eyes of everyone: hunger, lack of clean water, limited medical care and inadequate shelter, insufficient educational and cultural systems, illiteracy”, explained the cardinal. There are also “new forms of poverty” in advanced wealthy societies. There is evidence of “marginalization” as well as “affective, moral and spiritual poverty”. “The poverty to be embraced is that of a style of life which is simple and essential, avoiding waste and respecting the environment and the goodness of creation. This poverty can also be, at least at certain times during the year, that of frugality and fasting. It is the poverty which we choose which predisposes us to go beyond ourselves, expanding the heart”, continued card. Tauran. The message ends with a positive and trustful vision of the future of dialogue. “It seems that in diverse places of the world we have passed from tolerance to a meeting together, beginning with common lived experience and real shared concerns. This is an important step forward”, added the president of the Pontifical Council. Hence a challenge: “In giving everyone the riches of a life of prayer, fasting and charity of one towards the other, is it not possible for dialogue to draw on the living forces of those who are on the journey towards God?”.

© SIR - sept 11 2009

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