Nostra Aetate - In Our Time

10 Humanity is but one family. This is the very simple and the first reason why dialogue is necessary because, neighbouring each other, we have to speak to one another and what we do here on a high academic level is what we are used to doing in our daily lives with our neighbours, whatever religion they may have. The second reason is that in the human heart there is, all over the world in all humanity, a religious sense. Of course, some people deny the existence of the divine, and we have to respect their conscience and their con- viction. But generally speaking, every human being has a religious sense, a sense of the divine and you can expe- rience this sense when you observe people’s religious behaviour. I will never forget when I saw for the first time a Buddhist praying in their temple; when I entered a mosque for the first time and saw the prayer there. And as a child I learned more about my own religion by what I saw and heard from the faithful through their lives and through their acts as well as what I later studied in theological books. So, we have to exchange stories about religious expe- rience. And there are common features of religious experience all over the world – in all nations, in all human hearts you can find this spark of the divine which is the reason why religious experience is something we can share everywhere. And there is a third reason which I think is the most challenging reason for dialogue. In many religions, we believe that we have, after this earthly life, to give account of it; that there will be a judgement about what we have done. Religion is unimaginable without respon- sibility and we can share this responsibility, the common NOSTRA AETATE FOR OUR T IME Cardinal Schönborn celebrating his twentieth year as Archbishop of Vienna