by Catholic News Service
The U.S. bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs announced on February 8, that it is launching a new National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue, and Chicago Archbishop Blase J. Cupich has been named its first Catholic co-chairman.
“As the national conversation around Islam grows increasingly fraught, coarse and driven by fear and often willful misinformation, the Catholic Church must help to model real dialogue and goodwill,” said Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of Springfield, Massachusetts, who is chairman of the committee.
For over two decades, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ ecumenical and interreligious committee has co-sponsored three regional Catholic-Muslim dialogues, and Rozanski said the time is right to begin a national dialogue.
“Our current dialogues have advanced the goals of greater understanding, mutual esteem and collaboration between Muslims and Catholics, and the members have established lasting ties of friendship and a deep sense of trust,” he said in a statement.
He also thanked Cupich for agreeing to represent the USCCB “in this crucial conversation.” The Chicago prelate’s tenure as dialogue co-chair will begin Jan. 1, 2017.
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Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2016 Catholic News Service.