Asian prelates to discuss religious freedom, challenge of Eastern faiths

August 31, 2010

Questions of religious freedom, persecution, and the flight of Christian families will be on the agenda at a conference on evangelization in Asia, being held in Seoul, Korea this week under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

Before presiding at the opening of the conference on September 1, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, told Vatican Radio that the meeting would discuss the “growing fundamentalism that imposes drastic restrictions on religious freedom in many Asian countries.” He noted that in some countries there is open persecution, and in many there is a troubling flight of Christian families seeking more security elsewhere.

“Another challenge is the encounter with the great Asian religious traditions,” the cardinal said. He noted that evangelization efforts must overcome “a mentality of relativism and syncretism” that fails to comprehend the need to embrace the distinctive Christian message of salvation.

 

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Further information:

• Card. Rylko Seeks to Tackle “Bleeding of Christian Presence in Asia” (Vatican Radio)
• Vatican Conference on Proclaiming Jesus Christ in Asia Today (Vatican Radio)