CCEE to discuss dialogue with Muslims
(Vatican Radio) The Council of European Bishops’ Conferences is having its 4th meeting of bishops and delegates in charge of relations with Muslims in Europe. The meeting is being held at the Abbey of Saint Maurice in Switzerland this week and will last for three days. Two key areas which will be covered are dialogue between Christians and Muslims, along with sociological realities.
The Council of European Bishops’ Conferences has released the announcement reprinted below regarding the meeting.
How Muslims in Europe Change
4th Meeting of bishops and delegates in charge of relationships with Muslims in Europe, Saint-Maurice, Switzerland, 13-15 May 2015
Is there a radicalisation of Muslims in Europe? And how is this issue tackled within the Muslim communities? How is it possible to promote a culture of dialogue between Christians and Muslims? In other words, what is the cultural and religious vitality of the Muslims on the continent? These are some of the issues which will be discussed by the bishops and delegates from Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences in charge of relations with Muslims.
In the Abbey of Saint-Maurice (Switzerland), the oldest Western monastery still functioning, boasting an uninterrupted presence since 515, about forty experts in dialogue with Muslims in Europe will be guided in their work by Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux and former CCEE Vice-President (2006-2011), and with the participation, too, of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.
The meeting, promoted by the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE), is taking place in the Canton of Valais at the invitation of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference and its General Secretary, Dr. Erwin Tanner.
The speakers guiding the reflections include Prof. Olivier Roy from the European University Institute in Florence; Dr. Omero Marongiu-Perria, an expert in the sociology of religions and member of CISMOC (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Islam in the Contemporary World – University of Louvain, Belgium); Bishops Michel Dubost (France), Juan Antonio Martínez Camino (Spain) and Charles Morerod (Switzerland), who will speak about the vision of dialogue with Muslims in their respective countries. The reflections will then be completed by a series of practical experiences of dialogue, such as that of Fr. Christophe Roucou, talking about the French experience of dialogue between priests and imams; that of Helmut Wiesmann, talking about the German experience of co-operation in charitable work; and finally the experience of Bishop Pero Sudar in the areas of formation and education in Sarajevo (Bosnia Herzegovina).
The meeting will end on the morning of Friday 15 May with an open debate about the results of a questionnaire on some sensitive aspects of the dialogue in the different countries which will be presented by Don Andrea Pacini, CCEE Co-ordinator for this network and Secretary of the Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-religious dialogue of the Piemonte-Valle d’Aosta regional Bishops’ Conference, followed by concluding remarks from Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard.