Cardinal Tauran says truth essential element in dialogue with Muslims

Bordeaux, France, Apr 29, 2009 / 19:47 pm

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, spoke this week about the need for a “dialogue based on charity, but without losing sight of the truth,” in Muslim-Christian relations.

The cardinal made his comments in Bordeaux, France at the first meeting of bishops and national delegations for dialogue with Islam in Europe, promoted by the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences.
 
Cardinal Tauran said dialogue between Muslims and Christians in Europe is “a grace for us Christians, because it forces us to go deeper in our faith, to avoid ambiguity in our dialogue, to not see the other as an opponent but as a seeker of God and of the Absolute, to bear witness that man does not live on bread alone.” 
 
According to L’Osservatore Romano, the president of the Pontifical Council said his dicastery “is drafting pastoral guidelines for dialogue in truth and charity,” which he hopes will be published in the coming months.
 
Dialogue with Muslims, who make up about three or four percent of the European population, “also gives us the chance to show our friends that we respect them, but also that we expect of them a more decisive effort above all in attaining an objective knowledge of Christianity and a respect for the freedom of knowledge and religion, as is indicated in international documents.”