Most Rev. Hyginus Kim, Archbishop of Gwangju Archdiocese, Korea, Don Bosco Past Pupil, as the Head of Inter-religious commission of the Bishops conference during his visit in the main Buddhist Order Temple.

Birthday of Budha 2016 Message of the Catholic Church

By Our Own Correspondent

EAO -- Today, May 14, in most of the East Asian countries is a national holiday - celebration of the Veshak - Birthday of Budha. There is already long established tradition of mutual wishes and encounters between the Catholic and Buddhist community in half of the 22 EAO countries. Annual message of the President of the Pontifical Council for the inter-religious dialogue is a good example for all of us. Full text of the message can be found on the official Vatican website.

Buddhists and Christians: Together to Foster Ecological Education

Dear Buddhist Friends.... we are pleased to extend once again our best wishes on the occasion Vesakh, as you commemorate three significant events in the life of Gautama Buddha – his birth, enlightenment and death. We wish you peace, tranquility and joy in your hearts, within your families and in your country.

This year we write to you inspired by His Holiness Pope Francis’s Encyclical Letter,Laudato Sì, On the Care for Our Common Home. He notes that “the external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast. For this reason, the ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion” (n. 217). Moreover, he states that “our efforts at education will be inadequate and ineffectual unless we strive to promote a new way of thinking about human beings, life, society and our relationship with nature” (n. 215).

Dear Buddhist friends, you have also expressed concern about the degradation of the environment, which is attested to by the documents The Time to Act is Now: A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change and Buddhist Climate Change Statement to World Leaders.

These evidence a shared understanding that at the center of the ECO-crisis is, in fact, an EGO-crisis, expressed by human greed, anxiety, arrogance and ignorance. Our lifestyles and expectations, therefore, must change in order overcome the deterioration of our surroundings. “Cultivating the insight of inter-being and compassion, we will be able to act out of love, not fear, to protect our planet” (Buddhist Climate Change Statement to World Leaders). Otherwise, “When the Earth becomes sick, we become sick, because we are part of her” (The Time to Act is Now).

As the crisis of climate change is contributed to by human activity, we, Christians and Buddhists, must work together to confront it with an ecological spirituality. The acceleration of global environmental problems has added to the urgency of inter-religious cooperation. In countries where Buddhists and Christians live and work side by side, we can support the health and sustainability of the planet through joint educational programs aimed at raising ecological awareness and promoting joint initiatives. May we cooperate together in liberating humanity from the suffering brought about by climate change, and contribute to the care of our common home. In this spirit, we wish you once again a peaceful and joyful feast of Vesakh - Birthday of Buddha. ( by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, Vatican)

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