Jessica Oata
21 hours ago2 min
Port Moresby: The Catholic Bishops Conference Commission for Ecumenism and Interfaith Dialogue together with the Imam of the PNG Muslim Community and the other representatives presented a joint statement for Inter-Religious Dialogue and Coorperation against Religiously - Motivated Violence on Friday June 28, 2024.
(Imam Busaeri Ismaeel with His Eminence John Cardinal Ribat MSC)
Present to witness the significant occasion were His Eminence John Cardinal Ribat MSC, Bishop Deputy for the Commission for Ecumenism and Interfaith Dialogue, Imam Busaeri Ismaeel, leader of the PNG Muslim Community, the Bahai Faith representative, Reverend Roger Joseph from PNG Council of Churches and the CBC staff.
Ecumenism and Interfaith Dialogue Secretary Fr Angelo Sanchez SDB introducing the statement made reference to the declaration of the Second Vatican Council stating that “the human person has a right to religious freedom”, exhorted Catholics “to take an active and intelligent part in the work of ecumenism” and urged Catholics to “enter with prudence and charity into discussion and collaboration with members of other religions”.
He also mentioned that the Catholic Church in acting out the directions of the Council is in dialogue with ecumenical groups like the World Council of Churches and the World Evangelical Alliance and also holds one-on-one inter-religious and ecumenical dialogues with individual faith groups on the international level.
“Similarly, the local Catholic Church is supposed to maintain one-on-one dialogues and fellowships with individual faith communities as well to support ecumenical and interfaith communities”.
The dialogue between the Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea has maintained an official dialogue with the Muslim Community, centred in Port Moresby since 2002 and has been ongoing.
“Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, issued a Document on Human Fraternity which strongly condemned religiously-motivated violence, promoted tolerance and freedom of religion and rejected forcing anyone to adhere to a certain religion or culture and under this inspiration, the PNG Muslim-Catholic dialogue group in October 2020 signed a “Statement for Inter-Religious Dialogue and Cooperation and against Religiously-Motivated Violence”.
However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as change in personnel, the statement was not properly publicised, thus, the Press Conference was held to present and explain the statement, to present Biblical support for the statement and to present support from the Quran for the statement.
As a way forward, both parties now hope to demonstrate that religious freedom is both a Christian and Muslim value.
Presenting the statements were Muslim Representative Murtada Sauye and Catholic Representative Fr Albert Carver OFM Cap while Muslim Representative Shaeed Kopan presented Religious Freedom as a Muslim Value while Catholic Representative and former Secretary for Ecumenism and Interfaith Dialogue Brandon Zimmerman presented on Religious Freedom as a Christian Value.
In his reflections, Cardinal Ribat expressed his joy saying that this has been a long but fruitful journey in dialoguing with the Muslim Community.
Imam Busaeri Ismaeel shared similar sentiments saying that one cannot truly understand his brother’s way of life unless he himself has dialogued with his brother to understand and respect his brother’s way of life.
Mr Willy Huanduo who was part of the dialogue committee clarified that this document was approved years prior and did not just eventuate because of the Bill to make PNG a Christian Country.