Vatican calls on Catholics and Buddhists to work together to promote nonviolence [View all]

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Pope Francis greets a Buddhist monk during a Nov. 3, 2016, audience with religious leaders at the Vatican. (CNS/L'Osservatore Romano)

Joshua J. McElwee | Apr. 24, 2017

VATICAN CITY The Vatican has called on Catholics and Buddhists to work together to teach wider society the value of a nonviolent lifestyle, saying in a letter for an upcoming Buddhist holiday that the founders of the two faiths were alike in their promotion of peacemaking.

“Jesus Christ and the Buddha were promoters of nonviolence as well as peacemakers,” the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue writes in a letter issued Saturday for the upcoming Buddhist holiday of Vesakh.

“Though we recognize the uniqueness of our two religions, to which we remain committed, we agree that violence comes forth from the human heart, and that personal evils lead to structural evils,” the letter continues. “We are therefore called to a common enterprise.”

Vesakh, celebrated by most Buddhists this year on May 10, commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha.

https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/vatican-calls-catholics-and-buddhists-work-together-promote-nonviolence