Scottish Catholic Observer

Senior pupils from 13 Catholic secondary schools were recently invited to the Conforti Institute in Coatbridge to take part in a Nostra Aetate schools conference, where they learned more about the importance of inter-faith dialogue.

Nostra Aetate, which means ‘in our time’ is a declaration from the Second Vatican Council on the relationship between the Church and non-Christian religions. Proclaimed by Pope Paul VI, on October 28 1965, it earmarked a change in the Church’s attitude to those belonging to the major world faiths and opened the door to increased inter-religious dialogue.

Raising awareness

The schools conference, which was organised by the Conforti Institute, the Scottish Inter-Faith Council, the Scottish Catholic Education Service (SCES) and the Scottish Bishops’ Committee for Inter-Religious Dialogue, had the aim of raising awareness among Catholic young people of the Church’s commitment to dialogue with other faiths and to help show pupils the way forward.

The conference took the form of three workshops—organised by Fr Rocco Viviano SX, Barbara Campbell, from SCES and Ben Williams and Francis Hume, from the Scottish Inter-Faith Council—and an open forum in the afternoon featuring leaders of Scottish religious communities including Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow.

Workshop one focused on the background to the Nostra Aetate document, with Fr Viviano explaining the Catholic Church’s ongoing commitment to dialogue.

The second and third workshops helped the pupils learn more about inter-faith dialogue in Scotland and how they can share this vision when they return to their schools.

Enriching

Four girls from Fernhill School, Glasgow were among the conference’s participants and the school’s headteacher Jacqueline Sexton, who accompanied the girls to the conference, believes it was an enriching experience for them.

“The Fernhill girls thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to explore their own faith and compare their beliefs to other world religions,” Mrs Sexton said. “They particularly enjoyed the final session where they had the opportunity to question pivotal religious leaders from a variety of different religions. The event helped the girls to develop a clearer understanding of not only the differences between their beliefs and others but the similarities.”

A lively question and answer session chaired by Sr Isabel Smyth, secretary of the Bishops’ Committee for Inter-Religious Dialogue, provided a fitting conclusion to the day’s events.

Archbishop Conti was joined on the panel by Imam Mustaqeem Shah from the Muslim community, Shantiketu from the Buddhist community, Dr Multani from the Sikh community and Rabbi Nancy Morris from the Jewish community.

The panel were posed with some testing questions with pupils asking about the importance of denominational schooling, the role of religion in today’s society as well as having a keen interest in discovering how other faiths had responded to the recent state visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the UK and in particular Scotland.

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Pics: Tom Eadie