Interreligious Dialogue is at the core of the Commission’s activities. Bringing mutual understanding through dialogue and promoting collaboration amongst different faith and religious groups.
Acknowledging that the Catholic Church has gone a long way in her attitude towards other religions (from disregard and rejection – to a guarded acceptance and openness – to a positive assessment and the recognition of positive values), the Catholic Church has also been a champion in promoting interreligious dialogue since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), as illustrated in the main document of Vatican II, Nostra Aetate (1965) in its declaration on the Church’s relation with non-Christian religions.
Vatican II makes it clear that all religions are instruments of salvation. God finds people where they are, and speaks to them in the concrete religions of their historic-cultural situation. The Roman Catholic Church “rejects nothing which is true and holy in these religions that in fact she looks with sincere respect upon their ways of conduct, life and teachings which, while differing in many respects from what she holds, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens” (Nostra Aetate, 2).
CIRDE believes that dialogue is not and should not be a simple exchange
of words, thoughts and projects but an attitude that opens the interlocutors to
development and deep understanding of their views. It is an encounter in an
atmosphere of freedom and openness for each partner to listen and understand
one another with mutual respect in search of what is really good, what is right
and what is objective