Dialogue "cannot be made up", it demands "skills and wisdom", it shies away from any "naïve attitude", and above all it does not exempt those who practice it from announcing their own faith. Lessons in ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue. They were given this morning to the delegates for ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue by mgr. Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, as he spoke at the meeting of the Italian Bishops Conference, which is taking place in Rome until November 27th. As to ecumenical dialogue, mgr. Amato spoke of the dialogue of charity and truth. "The dialogue of charity - he said - is made of friendliness, mutual listening and esteem". "It smoothes the way for the dialogue of truth" and - he added - "I believe that visits, friendship, the exchange of gifts can scatter the thick fog of the historical and psychological biases" that dialogue between the Christian Churches seems to be suffering from nowadays. "The dialogue of truth - instantly explained mgr. Amato - cannot be made up, it requires skills, a spirit of understanding and concerns non-negotiable theological contents". "The two dialogues run on different but eventually converging trails and move at a different pace. The dialogue of charity is certainly faster, but the dialogue of truth runs more safely and does bear fruits, because it sheds light on the many things that unite us and explains what still divides us". While, in ecumenical dialogue, the Churches have "a common and shared platform", in inter-religious dialogue "there's no such platform", and therefore - said mgr. Amato - "the aims of the two dialogues are different": "The purpose of ecumenical dialogue is to achieve the unity of Christians in the only Church of Christ". Conversely, the purpose of inter-religious dialogue is not - "as some theosophical currents would lead us to believe" - the creation of "a universal, syncretistic religion, which acknowledges a least common denominator in every religion". Boundless is the horizon in which inter-religious dialogue can be effectively accomplished: from actions for achieving peace in the world to the protection of religious freedom and the protection of life, especially if defenceless. Inter-religious dialogue too requires skills and an in-depth knowledge of one's religious identity. "One cannot make a clean sweep of one's Christian identity. Many theologians for example, to attain a God shared by everyone, put aside the key figure of Christianity which is Jesus". "But - warned the prefect - to enter someone else's territory the best thing to do is showing one's identity card". Finally, "dialogue will not remove evangelisation and the announcement of one's faith, nor the call to conversion or baptism".
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