At the Vatican Francis met with a delegation of Buddhist monks and lay people from the Sangha Assembly in Chetuphon, marking the 50th anniversary of the first meeting between the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand with Paul VI. “[E]verywhere we hear the cry of a wounded humanity and a torn Earth,” Francis said. This makes “closer collaboration [. . .] even more necessary.”
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Pope Francis received a Buddhist delegation from Thailand’s Sangha Assembly in Chetuphon composed of 33 monks of the Theravada and Mahayana schools led by Somdej Phra MahaTheerajarn, together with 60 lay Buddhists and several representatives of the Catholic Church in Thailand.
In his address, the pontiff said that Catholics and Buddhists must work together “to nurture compassion and hospitality for all human beings, especially the poor and the marginalised.”
The meeting marked the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and the 17th Buddhist Supreme Patriarch of Thailand Somdej Phra Wannarat on 5 June 1972.
The visit by the Thai delegation will continue this afternoon with a conference on “Friendship between Buddhists and Christians for a Culture of Encounter” at the Pontifical Urbaniana University.
“We have a profound regard for the spiritual, moral, and socio-cultural treasures that have been bestowed on you through your precious traditions,” said Francis quoting from Paul VI from 50 years ago. “We recognize the values of which you are the custodians, and we share the desire that they should be preserved and fostered. We hope that there will be increasingly friendly dialogue and close collaboration between the traditions that you represent and the Catholic Church.”
Francis also mentioned two other meetings, namely that by a Thai delegation in 2018 – with the translation of an ancient Buddhist manuscript in the Pali language, preserved in the Vatican Library – and a papal visit to Thailand in November 2019. Such expressions of friendship point to a precious path for humanity today.
"At a time when the human family and the planet are facing multiple threats, friendly dialogue and closer collaboration are even more necessary,” Francis said. “Unfortunately, everywhere we hear the cry of a wounded humanity and a torn Earth”.
The pope noted that both the Buddha and Jesus understood "the need to overcome the selfishness that generates conflict and violence.”
In fact, “The Dhammapada sums up the Buddha's teachings as follows: ‘Abandoning all evil, entering the state of goodness, and purifying one’s own mind by oneself’, this is the Buddha’s teaching (Dph 183). Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another’ (Jn 13:34). It is our task today to guide our respective faithful to a more vivid sense of the truth that we are all brothers and sisters."
Lastly, Francis said: “In this spirit I encourage your efforts to deepen and expand dialogue and collaboration with the Catholic Church. Upon you and all the inhabitants of your noble country, I invoke plenty of heavenly blessings.”
Photo: Vatican News