Witnesses of Mercy for Peace and Reconciliation

VI his book is the result of an event entitled: International Symposium on Interreligious Sharing and the Witnessing of Mercy for Peace and Reconciliation , which took place from 3 to 4 November 2016 at the Pontifical Gre- gorian University, in Rome, Italy. It was co-organized by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) at the Holy See and the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), Vienna, Austria, in collaboration with the Adyan Foundation, Lebanon, as well as with the help of the Tanenbaum Foundation, USA. HE Bishop Ayuso, Secretary of the PCID, had invited KAICIID to co-organize this symposium following HH Pope Francis’ wish, as described in Misericordiae Vultus n.23, the Bull of Indiction that launched the Jubilee of Mercy (8 December 2015 to 20 November 2016): “I trust that this Jubilee year celebrating the mercy of God will foster an encounter with these religions (Judaism and Islam) and with other noble religious traditions; may it open us to even more fervent dialogue so that we might know and understand one another better; may it elim- inate every form of closed-mindedness and disrespect, and drive out every form of violence and discrimination.” This citation was later quoted in the introduction by Cardinal Tauran, President of the PCID, to its document to Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conferences worldwide, entitled Celebrating Mercy with Believers of Other Reli- gions , 16 June 2016. 1 This document helped prepare a special interreligious audience with His Holiness Pope Francis, which took place on the morning of 3 November 2016. While this audience was separate from the symposium, it nevertheless served as its prelude since all of the symposium’s 51 invited participants from 20 nations and 8 religions, including 17 high level religious leaders and 12 multi-generational exemplars of mercy of all continents, were in attendance. Given the significance of this special audience for the par- ticipants of the later symposium that officially began in the afternoon, special permission was granted to open this book with His Holiness Pope Francis’ address to this multireligious audience. Building on this papal address at this special interreli- gious audience, the aim of the symposiumwas to create a dialogical space to widen the possibility for interreligious sharing and witnessing, with two specific objectives: Firstly, to show how mercy is a common concept shared by all religions, and secondly, to demonstrate how its practice fosters inner and outer personal and collective peace, thus actively contributing to reconciliation and healing in a variety of conflicts, small and large. The two objectives were addressed consecutively over two days. On the afternoon of 3 November, the symposium began in the Aula Magna of the Pontifical Gregorian University. This first day took place in the same hall in which the celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate had taken place almost a year earlier, attended by several members of the KAICIID Board of Directors and staff. KAICIID had also celebrated that event at its headquarters in late November, 2015. The afternoon programme started with opening remarks from HE Bishop Ayuso and HE Faisal Bin Muaammar, KAICIID Secretary General – see Chapter 1. They were followed by two panels, the first facilitated by Prof. Abu-Nimer, and the second by Prof. Brodeur, both KAICIID Senior Advisers. These panels included nine high level religious leaders who presented their respective views on mercy and its links to the promotion of peace and reconciliation. Each one explained how mercy is key to his or her religious tradition, and how mercy relates to other important values in their respective belief and International Symposium on Interreligious Sharing and the Witnessing of Mercy for Peace and Reconciliation Prof. Patrice Brodeur, KAICIID Senior Adviser T INTRODUCT ION – WITNESSES OF MERCY FOR PEACE AND RECONCILIAT ION