In its annual message for the feast of Vesakh-Hanamatsuri, the Pontifical Council for interreligious dialogue highlights the positive role of new generations in “destroying the walls that still separate us.”
For the religions it is a “challenge” to teach young people under standing and respect for people of different faiths. Religions need to understand that “young people are an asset for all societies” and with their “dynamism” they help “destroy all the walls” which still separate human beings.
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Mgr. Pier Luigi Celata, President and Secretary of the Vatican dicastery respectively addressed the following words to Buddhists: “By their genuineness, they encourage us to find an answer to the most fundamental questions about life and death, justice and peace, the meaning of suffering, and the reasons for hope. Thus they help us to progress in our pilgrimage towards Truth. By their dynamism, as builders of the future, they put pressure on us to destroy all the walls which unfortunately still separate us. By their questioning they nurture the dialogue between religions and cultures.”
The Vatican published the message in Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese, on the occasion of the feast celebrated on different dates in various Buddhist Countries: Japan - 8 April; Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Burma, Cambodia and Laos - 5 May; India, Nepal, Pakistan and Indonesia - 6 May; South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Tibet, China, Hong Kong and Macau - 28 May and Thailand - 4 June.