A Report on the Fourth Parliament of the World’s Religions

The following is the first of two reports by MID personnel who attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions, held in Barcelona, Spain, from July 7-13, 2004. The author is Sr. Griselda Cos, OSB, the coordination of the Iberian Commission of MID. For Thomas Ryan’s report, click here.

How can I write a chronicle of such an exceptional event as the Parliament of the World’s Religions held within the context of the World Forum of Cultures? I certainly feel unable to sum up in one or two pages a whole week of workshops, seminars, talks, discussions, worship and prayer, shows, concerts, dancing, songs of peace, a whole week of limitations, unexpected changes, adaptations and much bustling about, a whole week when one came across so many open hearts and as many faces radiating goodness.

The magnificent new Forum of Cultures building was the perfect setting for an event at which men and women of today were discussing and reflecting about the world tomorrow.

About 8000 participants came together under a common ideal: to seek peace, justice and sustainability, and work for a better world; to acknowledge the humanity of others and develop the sense of community; to foster mutual understanding and respect and learn to live in harmony in a context of diversity; to grow spiritually and experience personal transformation. Pursuing all these objectives, the parliament itself became a pathway to peace.

From July 5-7, before the Parliament started, a conference was held at Montserrat to discuss some social issues of interest for all religions, for example, refugees and the causes of their plight, external debt as a curb to development, growing family violence, and access to clean water. This conference at Montserrat provided an opportunity to make Catholic monastic life better known, while at the same time witnessing to the vitality of Christianity.

When the parliament itself was opened, Raimon Panikkar welcomed the participants. Among these were the members of the North American MID, Fr. Julian von Duerbeck and Br. Gregory Perron, both of Saint Procopius Abbey, USA, and many contact-persons of the Iberian Commission.

As regards participation of monks and nuns of the Iberian Peninsula in the course of the Parliament, I can record the following: Fr. Francisco Rafael de Pascual, OCSO, together with Fernando Beltrán Llavador, gave a talk about Thomas Merton; the nuns of Sant Pere de les Puelles and some monks of Montserrat sang Lauds once; Fr Ramón Oranias and myself, together with two Hindu monks and two Buddhist monks, organized a symposium to reflect on the anthropology of our respective religious traditions. We intend to continue working together as an interfaith group.

I also took part in the presentation of a UNESCO interfaith group named “Las comunidades religiosas de Barcelona.” I belong to this group of 14 people of different religions, and for months we had been reflecting about the conditions for peace from the point of view of our respective religious traditions. At the parliament we presented the result of our work as follows: for about three minutes each member explained the views of a tradition different from his or her own (this meant that we all had assimilated what the other members of the group had to say); next, during the exhibition of a PowerPoint presentation about peace and conflict, we wrote, in different colors and languages, words like “harmony, dialogue, respect” on big white sheets on the floor. Some vivid dialogue followed. To end, first the members of the group, and then the people present, one at a time, joined in the singing of the word “peace” in different languages. This musical exercise was designed to show that the free expression of the individual could have a pacifying effect. The result was a great sense of harmony.

The parliament in Barcelona very effectively showed that there can be peace and cooperation among the religions, and that each religion has to preserve its own identity if it is to enter into profitable dialogue with its counterparts. From July 8-13, there were about 500 daily activities, and each day invariably started with an hour devoted to prayer under the lead of a different religious tradition. A very moving occasion was the awarding of a prize to the Anglican bishop of Angola, who shared with all present some of the hardships that he had gone through in his ministry in a deprived country. Another impressive occasion was the gathering of over 6000 participants in front of La Sagrada Familia, on the evening of July 10. A most touching gesture was the daily offering of food that the Sikhs made to all participants. By doing this, they wished to thank God for the 400 years of their sacred scriptures.

No manifesto or official document was issued by the Parliament of the World’s Religions 2004, but its motto will surely remain as a challenge to all: “Pathways to Peace: The Wisdom of Listening, the Power of Commitment.”

Bulletin 73 • Index