Vatican City (Fides Service) - To confirm its commitment for peace in South East Asia and the rest of the world a delegation of Indonesian leaders of different religions is visiting the Vatican and Rome. The delegation composed of 24 representatives of the five largest religious communities present in Indonesia and recognised by country’s Constitution, Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist and Hindu will be received by the Pope on June 23. Today June 22 the participants had a meeting with Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Later this evening the delegation will meet the S. Egidio Community in Rome.
“We encourage these efforts which show that religions can work together to build peace in the world. Today Indonesia is a key country in South East Asia and it needs this sort of testimony”, Mgr Felix Machado, Under Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue told Fides.
The visit was organised by the Indonesian Office for Religious Affairs represented by the secretary general Prof. Faisal Ismail in collaboration with the Indonesian Embassy to the Holy See. The delegation includes Muslim leaders: Zaidan Jauhari, chairman of the association of “Moslem Scholars of Indonesia”; Goodwill Zubir, secretary of the “Muhammadiyah” association; Hafdit Usman, head of the “Nahdlatul Ulama” council, as well as Hindu leaders Nyoman Widi Wisnawa, and Buddhist leader Dr Rusli. The Christian leaders include Protestant Pastor Richard Daulay, chairman of the Association of Churches in Indonesia and Rev. Father Ignazio Ismartono, Indonesian Bishops’ Conference delegate for external relations.
A delegation of Indonesian religious leaders led by Cardinal Julius Daamaatmadja, Archbishop of Jakarta, visited Rome in 2003, and it offered its support to the Pope to oppose the war in Iraq.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 22/06/2004 Lines: 22 Words: 280)