The meeting regarding Shia and Catholic dialogue led by Dr. Shomali was held with Father Eduardo and Brother Joseph at the presence of representatives from the Seminary of Qom. Father Eduardo and Brother Joseph expressed their gratitude for the hospitality of the institute and the two parties proceeded their conversation.
Father Eduardo began by mentioning that Muslims and Christians should forgive and forget the events occurred in the past, as Jesus has commanded in the Bible, and stressed the importance of forgetting, to have a necessary and much needed dialogue between the two religions.
Dr. Shomali explained his opinion about the Islamic understanding of rationality, spirituality, and justice, and Father Eduardo expressed his impression.
Dr. Sarvardi went on to talk about various levels of justice in Islam about which Brother Joseph stated that “we are here to share justice and we are just in our first steps towards a long-term dialogue and that the main part of Christianity is philosophy”.
One of the guests talked about the ease of a dialogue with the Christian faith since both religions share the same bases. Sheikh Barati pointed out to the relationship between the two religions, in the early history of Islam and that the mercy of Christians has been reflected in Islam as well.
At the end of the session, the two guests expressed their gratitude for the meeting and exclaimed, “When many of you are talking I feel like Catholics are talking. It is a spiritual experience for me and I am talking to spiritual masters.”
