WORKING FOR PEACE: GLIMMERS OF HOPE

Working towards peace

Notwithstanding the tensions and violence, it is also important to highlight constructive interreligious efforts. Of note were the visits of Pope Francis to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan in January and February 2023 in which he called upon leadership in both countries to work towards peace.

Among the myriad of national efforts, in Cameroon, government officials joined 60 Muslim and Christian clerics and hundreds of Muslims and Christians in the capital, Yaoundé, to pray for peace during the Africa Football Cup of Nations.

Christian and Muslim religious leaders gathered in Abidjan, the largest city of Ivory Coast, for an international symposium entitled “The Eternal Message of Religions” in which a common declaration was agreed that “solidarity, fraternity and dialogue among all religions must be the very basis of social peace”.

In the Central African Republic, an interfaith group called the Platform of Religious Confessions of Central Africa united the religious leaders of the country’s Muslim, Evangelical, and Catholic communities. Together the leaders courageously travelled to the front lines to reopen dialogue between armed groups and elected officials.

ACN promotes interreligious dialogue in a number of ways:

Firstly, through the publication of the Religious Freedom in the World Report (RFR), where all religious denominations are included. This serves as a tool with which to draw attention to this universal human right for each individual.

Secondly, ACN supports projects in areas of potential interreligious conflict where in many cases the Catholic Church serves as a mediator between religious denominations and seeks to bring together the same parties around the table to address issues of concern. This is, for example, the case with the Silsilah dialogue project in Mindanao, in the Philippines, with the aim of bringing together Muslims and Christians.

ACN projects related to the support of religious sisters and missionaries also serve as a means of interreligious dialogue and peaceful coexistence. For example, Catholic schools in Pakistan cater to the 99% Muslim population enabling Muslim and Christian students to experience a learned living together.

In areas where there is conflict and atrocities committed against mixed communities, and where there is no other authority in rural areas, the victimsboth Muslim and Christian - seek refuge in the Church. The priests, sisters, and faithful in these areas do not discriminate in their pastoral and social care for those in need.

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Muslim girl and a Catholic sister learning together at the Catholic University in Morogoro, Tanzania

A psychotherapy session, supported by ACN, for forced conversion victims in Pakistan