Vatican bids Hindus join in training youth to be peacemakers

November 08, 2012

In an annual message to the world’s Hindus, the Vatican has said that Christians and Hindus should join in a campaign “to form all people, especially the young generation, into peacemakers.”

The message from the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue—released for Diwali the Hindu festival of light, which falls this year on November 13—argues that peace “must be built on the pillars of truth, justice, love, and freedom,” and that “cultural differences ought surely to be treated as a richness rather than a threat or danger.”

The Vatican statement says that the education of peacemakers must begin in the home and continue in schools, which have a moral obligation “to caution the students against ideologies that cause discord and division.” Religious leaders, the statement says, “by reason of their vocation to be spiritual and moral leaders, must continue to inspire the young generation to walk the path of peace and to become messengers of peace.”

 

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Further information:

• Message to Hindus for the Feast of Diwali (VIS)