Interfaith Gathering

It is my pleasant duty to welcome you all to this interfaith gathering at St Mary's Cathedral. You are all welcome: Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus, those of uncertain faith and perhaps a few without faith. We are here to pray for continuing peace and mutual tolerance, especially in our own land of Australia.

I extend a special word of welcome to our guest Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Al-Farah Mosque, New York, who will be speaking to us later, to our Premier, the Honourable Bob Carr, and the Lieutenant Governor and Chief Justice Jim Spiegelman.

I note with gratitude the presence of a significant number of senior students from our Catholic Schools. Your participation is particularly valuable because here today we are working and praying for your future, for the peace and harmony we hope you and your children will enjoy.

St Mary's Cathedral is the mother Church for all the Catholic communities in Australia. Governor Macquarie laid the foundation stone in 1821, 33 years after the first European settlement. It was 1821 before Australian Catholics obtained the continuing right to practise their religion publicly, eight years before Daniel O'Connell achieved Emancipation, granting most basic freedoms, for Catholics in Britain and throughout the British Empire.

We Australians treasure our democracy, our religious freedoms, our traditions of free speech and mutual tolerance. Australian Catholics are certainly committed to defending these rights for all citizens.

Just as we Christians rightly demand that the lives and civic rights of Christian minorities in, for example, Indonesia and the Middle East are respected, we must be equally vigilant that all minorities in Australia are treated with respect and made to feel welcome as fellow Australians.

Unfortunately there is a long history of strife between Christians, Muslims and Jews. Today, a few violent fanatics are trying to provoke a clash of civilizations. In some places long term violence is escalating.

We are all called to do what we can to reverse and change this long history; not by denying that history, nor by denying our differences; not by working for peace at any price, which never endures, but by working for peace through justice, so denying oxygen to those who want to inflame prejudice and fanaticism.

Cardinal Pell and Imam Rauf at St Mary's Cathedral Jews, Christians and Moslems: we are all the children of Abraham. We all worship the one true God, reverence the holy city of Jerusalem, believe that our actions in this life will be judged, met with approval or disapproval in the next life. We believe in God as creator of the universe and as the Great Judge after the day of resurrection. We all believe in the importance of prayer.

During the twentieth century relationships between the different Christian churches generally improved. We thank God for this. Another great task is to build bridges, improve relations among the great religions, especially among all monotheists. You are all welcome today because that is precisely what we now seek through this interfaith prayer service.

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