CHICAGO: Well meaning members of Indian community in Chicaogland have expressed their disappointment and anguish over the refusal of Vatican Pope Francis to meet a globally respected religious figure Dalai Lama recently.
It appears that the Vatican decision was greatly motivated by its political assessment of global politics and its desire to improve relations with China which deems Dalai Lama as anti-national. The Vatican has no formal diplomatic ties with Beijing since Communist take over in 1949 but Pope Francis, like his predecessor, Benedict XVI, is seeking warming of ties with the Chinese authorities, which broke off relations in 1951 and set up a branch of the Roman Catholic Church outside the Vatican’s control.
Dalai Lama was primed to attend a gathering of Nobel Peace Prize laureates in Rome. The Dalai Lama was quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA as saying that he had been turned down for an audience “because it might create inconveniences.”
The laureates’ gathering was initially set to take place in Cape Town in October, but the South African government of President Jacob G. Zuma, which has close economic ties with China, refused to grant the 79-year-old Dalai Lama a visa. That action provoked a boycott by other Nobel laureates.
The Rome gathering was scheduled for two days after the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was presented in Oslo to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012, and Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian campaigner for the rights of children.
Describing Pope’s action as “a sad day for interfaith dialogue,” Rajan Zed, president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that a religious leader of Pope’s standing with about 1.2 billion followers should be more focused on bringing the diverse faiths together instead of falling prey to petty diplomacy.
“Pope Francis should re-evaluate his priorities and place interfaith dialogue on top of the list aiming at bringing all humanity together on issues of common religious concerns like human improvement, peace, ecological responsibility, social & economic development, etc,” he observed
Nand Kapur, former president of Association of Indians in America, said that inter-religious dialogue might help us vanquish the stereotypes, prejudices, caricatures, etc., aggravated by bigots of late. Madhu Patel, president of NRI Press Club said that the Pope’s action smacks of a mix up of politics and religion and turning down a well-intentioned meeting request from a well-known leader of another world religion could be dubbed as an unwelcome development.
Surendra Ullal
Thank You For Your Vote!
Sorry You have Already Voted!
