Catholic World News News Feature

Asia yearns for God, Pope says June 06, 2008

Church leaders in Asia must find ways to touch the "innate spiritual insight and moral wisdom in the Asian soul," Pope Benedict XVI said during a June 6 meeting with bishops from Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei.

The Pope told the Asian prelates, who were finishing their ad limina visit to Rome, that "you are sowing the seeds of evangelization on fertile ground." He explained that "the peoples of Asia display an intense yearning for God," leaving Christian evangelists with the challenge of bringing the Gospel message into the context of Asian traditions.

"In particular," the Pope said, "you need to ensure that the Christian Gospel is in no way confused in their minds with secular principles associated with the Enlightenment." As Asian cultures struggle with the intellectual results of the Enlightenment, he said, Christians should offer an alternative that combines a deep sense of reverence and the transcendent with a commitment to human rights and freedom.

Pope Benedict remarked that the bishops he was addressing, who form a single episcopal conference for purposes of administrative convenience, lead local churches in countries with very different approaches to the issue of religious freedom. The Church should insist on respect for religious liberty, he said, while actively pursuing dialogue with other faiths and striving to reach accord on "the law written on their hearts."