The Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought will host the Second Muslim-Catholic Forum from Nov.21-23 at the Baptism Site, Jordan.
The Forum is one of the fruits of the ‘A Common Word’ initiative which was launched in 2007 and which seeks to promote Muslim-Christian dialogue based on the two shared religious commandments of ‘Love of God’ and ‘Love of the Neighbour’ [see acommonword.com ]
This Forum builds on the success of the first Forum, which was held at the Vatican in 2008. It brings together 24 leading scholars from each religion to discuss the following three themes: 1. Reason, 2. Faith, 3. The Human Person.
The three day event will allow each delegation to present the depth and breadth of each religion’s perspective on the three themes. It is hoped that this exchange fosters a better understanding of both religions and enhances mutual respect and further collaboration within the scholarly circles of both religions.
The event will have a public session on Weds.23 Nov from 17:00 – 19:35 which will include a question/answer session, reading of the joint declaration, and opportunities for the media to speak with the delegations.
The Muslim delegation will include HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, Grand Mufti Ali Goma’a, Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric, Shaykh Ramadan Bouti, Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah, , Habib Umar bin Hafiz, Habib Ali bin Jifri, and Shaykh Mohammed Ali Sabouni amongst others.
The Christian delegation will include His Eminence Card. Jean-Louis Tauran, His Beatitude Fouad Twal, H.E. Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, H.E. Archbishop Giorgio Lingua, H.E. Paul Desfarges, S.I., H.E. Kevin McDonald, Rev. Father Prof. Christian Troll, S.I., Prof. Vittorio Possenti, Prof. Stefan Hammer, and Prof. Jane Dammen McAuliffe amongst others.