Catholic aid organization to help with translation of Pope’s addresses to Arabic

Nov 1, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Catholic aid organization, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), has announced it will provide financial assistance for an effort by the Patriarch of Venice to provide an Arabic-language translation of Pope Benedict’s weekly public audience’s through the Oasis International Centre.

“What occurred to the words of our Holy Father, Benedict XVI, at the University of Regensburg was a misunderstanding, demonstrating the distances between two cultures, two ways of thinking and languages,” ACN’s International Ecclesiastical Assistant, Fr. Joaquín Alliende-Luco said.

“Especially in order to build a bridge between the Holy Father and the countries with Arab character, Aid to the Church in Need financially supports the translation of his weekly catechesis, each Wednesday,” Fr. Alliende-Luco said. “This aims to strengthen and to accompany the Christians in these countries.”

The Oasis International Studies and Research Centre was founded in Venice two years ago by a group of Cardinals and Bishops.  Its name came from a speech given delivered by Pope John Paul II in Damascus, in which he referred to the needed support for Christian communities living in countries with an Islamic majority.  

The organization already provides a bi-annual review, also titled Oasis, which is published in four bilingual editions to aid the Bishops stationed in Arabic speaking countries (Italian – Arabic, English – Arabic; French – Arabic; English –Urdu).  The Oasis Centre also initiated this year a series of books “I Libri di Oasis” (The Books of Oasis) on the Catholic Church’s dialogue with Muslims.