CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS: CARD. TAURAN, “UNITED IN THE FACE OF THE CHALLENGE OF EDUCATION”

“Christians and Muslims, let’s join our efforts so that tomorrow there will be no shortage of men and women who, through their courage, sweetness and perseverance, will be capable of purifying their memory and their heart to make human wisdom meet God’s wisdom”. With this exhortation, yesterday afternoon card. Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, ended his speech at the sixth meeting of the scientific committee of the International non-profit foundation Oasis, “Education between faith and culture. Christian and Muslim experiences”, which will be ending in Beirut today. In pointing out that, despite the two “main crises” of our days and age, “the crisis of intelligence” and “that of the transmission of values”, we see “a comeback of all things religious”, card. Tauran stated that religions make a specific contribution to education. They give “a taste for inner life” by claiming that “man does not feed on bread alone” and raise “awareness of one’s own identity: man is the only creature that questions others and questions himself”. In addition, religions “boost the pedagogy of the encounter” and “help live difference with respect”.
According to card. Tauran, who spoke at the Oasis meeting in Beirut, religions also boost “the acceptance of plurality” and contribute to “ensuring that human beings and their rights are respected“, because “each one of us is unique, each one of us is sacred”. It “should not be impossible”, the Vatican leader pointed out, for “Christian and Muslim religious leaders, united in the face of the challenge of education”, to raise “the law-makers and teachers’ awareness of the need to offer rules of conduct”. Such rules as respect for “those who look for the truth in the face of the enigma of the human being; the critical awareness that makes one choose between true and false; the teaching of a humanist philosophy that provides human answers to questions on man, the world and God”. As well as “the appreciation and spreading of the great cultural traditions open to transcendence, which express our aspiration to freedom and truth”. Education, in the broadest sense of the word, card. Tauran concluded, “cannot neglect the religious dimension of the human being”. The international foundation Oasis was established in 2004 by the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice Angelo Scola to promote mutual understanding between Christians and Muslims.

© SIR - 22 june 2010