Interreligious dialogue

It is perhaps the most demanding but also the most stimulating challenge that PIME has taken on in several decades. If, in fact, the testimony that leads to the announcement remains an absolute priority, the Church cannot limit itself to it. Evangelizing also means, through dialogue, recognizing and welcoming everything that the Spirit has sown in communities, outside the visible boundaries of the Church.

Among the pioneers of interreligious dialogue at PIME, mention should certainly be made of Fr. Giorgio Bonazzoli, who, in the footsteps of pioneers such as Raimon Panikkar and Henri Le Saux, in India, dedicated himself for a long time, starting from the 1960s, to dialogue with Hinduism.

A particularly significant experience, due to its duration and the results achieved, is that of Silsilah, the movement for dialogue between Christians and Muslims founded in 1984 by Fr. Sebastiano D'Ambra in Zamboanga, in the Philippines. A commitment to peace in an area of ​​very high tension due to fundamentalist groups, for which another PIME missionary, Fr. Salvatore Carzedda, also a member of the movement, murdered in 1992, gave his life.

Other dialogue initiatives with Muslims have been activated in Bangladesh, thanks to Fr. Francesco Rapacioli, and in the Far North of Cameroon by Fr. Giuseppe Parietti, together with missionaries from other congregations. In Japan some PIME missionaries, including Fr. Ferruccio Brambillasca, founded the Kakehashi group together with the Xaverians. In Thailand, Fr. Daniele Mazza, engaged in dialogue with Buddhists, has taken up the baton of his brother Angelo Campagnoli.

Source: https://www.pime.org/