Religious Intolerance ‘Belongs to a Past Era,’ says Kobia
The WCC is ''prepared to accompany efforts geared toward overcoming religious intolerance. There is no place in the world for religious intolerance. It belongs to a past era''
As violence in the name of religion grows, people of various faiths must spawn peace through inter-religious dialogue, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) said during his meeting with Afro-Brazilian leaders.
"Christians and followers of Candomblé and other Afro-Brazilian religions need not be strangers to each other," but rather must realize that they are "neighbours one to the other, and (…) must strive to forge good neighbourliness characterized by tolerance and mutual respect,” said. Dr Samuel Kobia in Salvador, Brazil, on Sunday, November 7, 2004.
As a representative of the world’s largest Christian ecumenical group, Kobia utilized the “salad bowl” concept of how different faiths can joint hands without melting into one specific religion.
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The reality of the world "should prompt people of various faiths to come together, not to merge, not to blend, but affirming our differences, and yet committing ourselves to a new attitude to the other, a harmony of differences,” said Kobia.
Many of his comments were prompted by his visit to the oldest Afro-Brazilian worship house in Bahia, during which the leaders ruled out the idea of a “peaceful and harmonious Brazil” as false. Racism, religious intolerance and unequal income distribution has had a negative impact on the Black population, they said.
Kobia assured the minority population that the WCC is "prepared to accompany efforts geared toward overcoming religious intolerance,” since “There is no place in the world for religious intolerance.”
“It belongs to a past era," he said, as he lauded inter-religious dialogue as the solution to the concerns.
Said Kobia: "Through dialogue and co-operation we will discover what we really have in common and how we, each from the heart and soul of our religious traditions, can be of service to humankind".
Following his meeting with Afro-Columbians, Kobia visited the newly-opened Brazilian Roman Catholic Church, and discussed the nation’s growing ecumenical movement with the president of the National Brazilian Bishop’s Conference (CNBB) and the Archbishop Primate of Brazil, Dom Geraldo Magela.
The WCC general secretary also visited the meeting of the III Northeast Region of the CNBB, where he spoke briefly with its general secretary and the person responsible for ecumenism in Bahia, Bishop Dom Paulo Romeu Dantas Bastos, with the second vice president of the Latin American Bishops' Conference (CELAM), Archbishop Dom Geraldo Lidio Rocha and with Archbishop Dom Itamar Vian.
The WCC general secretary visit to Latin American continues in Brazil (Porto Alegre), Argentina (Buenos Aires), Uruguay (Montevideo) and Chile (Santiago).
