Hindu Catholic Dialogue Commemorative Brochure 20150523

Author(s): United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Publisher: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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minds and languages. Taittirīya Upanishad speaks of God as the one "from whom all words, along with the mind, turn back having failed to grasp (yato vāco nivartante aprāpya manasā saha).” The implication is that we can only profess our traditions with humility and be open always to the possibility of learning from and being enriched by the wisdom of others. Rg Veda entreats us to welcome wisdom from all sources (ā no bhadrāh krtavo yantu vishvatah).
Mutual respect and reverence must also be grounded in a value for the dignity and sacred worth of the human being. It is our value for the person that leads to our value for the religious tradition that he or she holds dear and to our wish to deepen our understanding of that tradition. It seems difficult to respect a religious tradition without respect for those who belong to that tradition. The Hindu tradition teaches that God exists equally in all beings. There is no life outside of God and there is nothing that exists which is not sustained by God. No being is excluded. Every human encounter is an encounter also with God. This is the source of our reverence for the human person and our affirmation of her and his dignity and equal worth. We can stand together against any ideology and political or social structure that denies the personhood, and dignity of human beings and that condones injustice and irreverence. We can speak together for justice and do so for reasons that include but go beyond the political and economic—we can speak of the divine present in the heart of the human.
Hindu and Catholic theologies, in their distinctive insights, enable us to stand together for the dignity and equal worth of human beings. These inspire us, in special ways, to lives of compassion and service for the overcoming of suffering in our world. In a world that longs for peace, these are among the finest reasons why Hindus and Catholics can and should stand together, committed to a dialogue of mutual enrichment and the common good.
COMMEMORATIVE BROCHURE
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