June 2009

President Niwano Meets President of Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue

On June 15, one day before the Fourth Summit of Religious Leaders on the occasion of the G8, three representatives of the Japanese Committee of the World Conference of Religions for Peace visited the Vatican and met Jean-Louis Pierre Cardinal Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID). The representatives were Rev. Nichiko Niwano, president of the Religions for Peace Japan; Ven. Gijun Sugitani, supreme advisor to the Tendai Buddhist Denomination and former secretary-general of Religions for Peace Japan; and Rev. Tokio Kanakogi of the Oomoto Foundation. Along with Cardinal Tauran, the representatives were welcomed by Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, secretary of the PCID, and Msgr. Andrew Thanya-anan Vissanu, its under-secretary.

During their conversation, Cardinal Tauran mentioned that he would make his first visit to Japan this August and hoped to meet and become acquainted with Japanese religious leaders. 

President Niwano recalled his meeting with the cardinal at the World Conference on Dialogue in Madrid in July 2008, organized by the Muslim World League. He promised Cardinal Tauran a warm welcome in Japan. Ven. Sugitani and Rev. Kanakogi then explained their organizations' religious activities for world peace. Cardinal Tauran said the teachings of many religions have much in common and that people of faith have a responsibility to contribute to world peace. He also mentioned the responsibility of all people of faith to promote environmental protection as well as interreligious dialogue for our millennium.

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