Pope Francis's significance of visiting Singapore, of course, surpassed the Catholic community of 395,000 people in the local area, and also played a positive role in religion in Singapore and even the Asia -Pacific region.
The Pope's first stop is Indonesia with a population of about 230 million Muslims.It has nearly 8 million Catholic people.More importantly, Indonesia, which follows the principles of "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika", is also known for its relatively tolerant and harmony with the "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" principle.Article 29 of the Indonesian Constitution to protect the right to religious freedom of the people.To this day, the Hindu faith in Bali, Bali, the tourist destination, and the Buddhist relics of Bornefu, all show the religious diversity of Indonesia's history and reality.
The Pope's itinerary includes a meeting with Indonesian religious and community leaders. Among them, his visit to the Indonesian capital Istiklar's return to church is particularly symbolic significance.Istikral means "independence", and this largest tranquility in Southeast Asia was built to commemorate Indonesia's independence.It is located in independent squares, so it is also a country in Indonesia.Before construction, the first President of Indonesia Sakano insisted on building it in the Catholic Cardinal of Catholic Indonesia -the Cathedral of the Virgin ascending the Cathedral, and the Christian Church near the Maneli Church, symbolizing the "Pancasila" of Indonesia (Pancasila "(Pancasila") The religious harmony and tolerance advocated.
The architect of the Indonesian country returning to the church is Frederich Silaban, who believes in the Protestantism of the Luther.There is also an underground tunnel between the Memorial Church and the Virgin ascending Cathedral. Therefore, this tunnel is appropriately called the "Friendship Tunnel".As early as November 2009, Jean-Louis Tauran Cardinal, Chairman of the Religious Dialogue Committee of the Grandpa, said, "This is the first time I have felt the sincere neighborhood when I visited the church when I visited the church.The atmosphere. There seems to be no gap between the Muslim and the Bishop.At that time, the person in charge of the church introduced to Obama that during Christmas, the parking lot of the church would be used by the Catholic Church's congregation; and at the Eid, the parking lot of the cathedral was opened to a Muslim.Therefore, this time the Pope also visited this sanctuary that symbolized the harmony of religion again, and said that the return church was "a symbol of unity of brothers who overcomes the differences between faith and theology."
Singapore is the last stop for the Pope's visit. Although Catholics only account for less than 10%of the local population, it is an important part of our diverse religious structure.During the visit of the Pope, Singapore also arranged a series of religious dialogue activities to strengthen the harmony and tolerance between Singapore religion, and also showed the importance of dialogue and exchanges between religion.
Mutual benefit and mutual exchanges between religion are extremely important.The Abbasid Caliphate (also translated the Ajeson dynasty) began in the eighth century as a Muslim regime in Baghdad, but he was open to religious exchanges.Arabic, finally feeds Europe during the Renaissance.At the same time, Anda Lucia in Spain was under the rule of asiative, and various religions coexisted in a harmonious way for hundreds of years.The Ottoman Empire, which has been in the world for more than 700 years, has also advocated diversified cultural coexistence for most of the time.But unfortunately, once conservativeism and the power of the original education are large, coupled with the actual economic marginization and poverty, it will give birth to a closed and extreme religious tendency.
Some academic research believes that compared with Catholicism in the Middle Ages for heresy, Muslims was usually more tolerant at that time, especially for "people with scriptures" (such as Christians and Jewish).However, the European Christian world is reborn after experiencing the baptism of modern civilization, and other religions may still stay in history.
The modernization of Christianity has experienced religious reforms promoted by Martin Luther, Calvin and others in the 16th century, breaking the monopoly of the priest's class.Since then, the scientific and rationalism of the Enlightenment has expanded his horizons for European Christianity and laid the foundation for modern secular countries.After the European Industrial Revolution, the rapid progress of science and technology further opened another window for the people.Religion and thought are the cornerstone of modern democratic society.It can be seen that any religion must go through this important self -transformation and modernization process in order to gradually keep up with the pace of the world.
When the Pope visited Istikral on the church on September 5, he signed a joint declaration with the Indonesian Muslim Chief Education Chiefs, calling on Muslims and Catholics to jointly promote the global leaders to respond to climate change and extremism.threaten.At the meeting, Nasutadin leaned over to kiss the head of the elder Pope, and the Pope kissed Nasarudin's back before leaving the church.This kind of significance of such across religious exchanges and showing friendship, so that the supreme righteousness of religion is nothing to say.
The author is a local literary and historical enthusiast and religious researcher
