The Scottish Bishops’ Committee for Interreligious Dialogue has commemorated the sixth anniversary of the historic signing in 2019 of the MNHuman Fraternity Document by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb from Al Azhar university.
An event at Glasgow University, organised by the Committee and the Ahl Al Bait Society Scotland, focused on engaging young people “in the transformative power of interfaith collaboration”. More than 100 members of the Catholic and Shia Muslim communities in Scotland attended.
Bishop Brian McGee of Argyll and The Isles and Dr Mohammad Ali Shomali, a scholar and theologian, addressed the conference on the importance of engaging young people in dialogue with a view to building a more just and harmonious future. Bishop McGee reflected on the ongoing dialogue between Catholics and Muslims given that this year marks the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate.
Prior to the event, Joseph Sikora, secretary of the committee, and Dr Ahmed Khweir of the Ahl Al Bait Society Scotland conducted workshops in St Roch’s and Holyrood secondary schools in Glasgow. Chosen for their religious, ethnic and cultural diversity, the schools were afterwards presented with a tree sapling as a symbol of nurturing interreligious dialogue.
Pupils from both schools then gave presentations at the conference about what they had learned from the Human Fraternity Document and their plans for incorporating it into their future interreligious activities. The final part of the conference was a general discussion on how schools, universities and youth programmes could develop more capacity for interreligious dialogue and collaboration.
– Source: thetablet.co.uk
