"An appeal to the world religious leaders, that they may help boost the return to spirituality as a prerequisite for a harmonious development of the world". It was made yesterday, when opening the III Congress of the World and Traditional Religions in Astana, by the president of Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev. "Spiritual leaders have always been the holders of fundamental moral values, and that's why we pin special hope on them", said the President, the promoter of the Congress, to the leaders of the 77 delegations from 35 countries, representing Islam, Christianity, Hebraism, and the most ancient Eastern religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Shinto and Zoroastrianism. The president spoke of the current crisis as of an instrument to give the world a chance to change and improve through dialogue and mutually-acceptable positions. Today, at the end of the meeting, the participants will sign an appeal whose recommendations Kazakhstan plans to implement by 2010, when it will chair the OECD and the Islamic Conference Organisation. Kazakhstan is home to about 3,200 mosques, churches and prayer houses. Over 40 confessions and 130 nationalities and ethnic groups live peacefully together in the country. The Catholic Church is represented by card. Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Papal Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue.
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