MIRIFICA.NEWS, Yogyakarta – The present situation of religious extermism seems to be a good point of departure to reflect upon the way religious leaders have promoted harmony and true fraternity amongs societies. The war-torn places spreading to South East Asia may jolt our consciousness towar the urgency of dealing with religious extremism inter-religously since the problem of such an extremism goes beyond religious demarcation and, in fact, it is often socio-political issue more than religious one. In this case, religious extremism is a common challenge for all believers and anyone of good will.
The Asian Catholic Youth, which are minority in most Asian countries, cannot remain silent or complacent in gatherings with fellow young Catholics without maintaining an open mind about how young people of others religions deal with the common challenge. Encounters with those who fight religious radicalism from other religious perspective wil help young Catholic not only to collaborate with them, but also to deepen their own identity as it is often said that being religious is always being interreligious.
To some extent, religious leaders may have significant role for young people to set ip their way of proceedings since the young people tend to observe their role models who bear testimny to religious and moral values. As a matter of fact, religioous leaders in multicultural countries, such as in Indonesia, are always faced with real menance of disharmony and diunity unless they have good relationship.
This interreligious hospitality is intended as fraternal conversation between Asian Catholic Bishops and other religious leaders to figure out how Indonesia religious leaders maintain harmonious condition in their plural society. By this time, they shared with participation their effort to preserve harmony and dialogue from any potential menace of disintegration.
The program also aims at sharing knowledge about general situation and caharacteristics of religious radicalism in Asia. This knowledge may be useful to better understand local situation related to religious radicalism.
The main purpose of this program, for ther part of Asian Catholic Bishops, is to enhance the understanding of how to accompany Asian Catholic Youth in the formation of their faith in relation with young people if different religious.
The interreligoius hospitality was attended all Asian Bishops in The 7th Asian Youth Day and some Indonesian religious leaders especially in Yogyakarta as Prof. Ahmad Syafi Maarif or most be known as Buya Syafii, Presiden World Conference on Religion for Peace (WCRP) and CEO The Maarif Institute. It was took a place in Jayakarta Hotel, Thursday 3nd of August 2017, Yogyakarta.
This program was moderated by J.B Heru Prakosa from Sanata Dharma University and some resource persons as Bishop Yohanes Harun Yuwono, Head of Interreligious Affair Commision of Indonesian Bishop’s Conference, Mr. Savic Ali from NUtizen, and Dr. Suhadi Cholil from Islamic State University in Yogyakarta.
Credit: All Asian Bishops and some religious leaders from Indonesia when attending the Interreligoius Hospitality In the Occasion of The 7th Asian Youth Day in Yogyakarta.
Membantu para Waligereja mewujudkan masyarakat Indonesia yang beriman, menghayati nilai-nilai universal, serta mampu menggunakan media komunikasi secara bertanggung jawab demi terciptanya persaudaraan sejati dan kemajuan bersama.
