VATICAN (UCAN): The Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue plans to host its first Confucian-Christian colloquium in South Korea, convening clergy, scholars, and practitioners from 12 countries to explore ways to build a better, more humane society.
The August 4-5 colloquium, scheduled to take place at Sogang University’s Jeong Ha-sang Hall in Seoul, plans to discuss the theme “Dialogue on the Contribution of Christianity and Confucianism to an Ideal Society: New Heaven, New Earth, and Great Unity.”
Organisers said the meeting will examine the Christian vision of “a new heaven and a new earth” from the Book of Revelation and the Confucian ideal of Great Unity, or datong, found in the Book of Rites, Catholic Times of Korea reported.
The local organisers include the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, Sungkyunkwan University and Sogang University.
George Jacob Cardinal Koovakad, prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, is expected to attend the colloquium, along with dicastery officials including Father Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku Kankanamalage and Father Paulin Batairwa Kubuya.
Confucian and Catholic scholars from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the United States, including clergy, religious, theologians, philosophers, and those engaged in interreligious and cultural dialogue, are expected to attend the colloquium.
The colloquium comes as the Vatican’s dialogue office continues efforts to deepen engagement with followers of Confucian traditions.
In 2024, the dicastery and Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan organised a meeting on guidelines and prospects for Christian-Confucian dialogue [Sunday Examiner, 17 March 2024].
Vatican News reported at the time that the Taiwan meeting was seen as a “significant step forward” in drafting guidelines for dialogue with followers of Confucianism.
The Seoul colloquium is expected to explore universal fraternity, virtuous leadership, benevolent governance and ecological responsibility at a time of social division, environmental crisis and ethical uncertainty.
The organisers said the results will be published in Acta Pro Dialogo, the journal of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, to support the continued development of Christian-Confucian dialogue.
