TIRANA, Jan. 26, 2023 – An Albanian civil society representative, Rudina Collaku, founder and executive director of Women’s Center for Development and Culture, has addressed a conference on women and interfaith relations organized by Pope Francis.
Pope Francis upheld the importance of protecting dignity of and caring for women and girls, when addressing participants in the international conference “Women Building a Culture of Encounter Interreligiously.”
Collaku was among the several international representatives to meet the Pope at the Vatican conference.
The conference was organized by the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations in collaboration with the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue at Rome’s Pontifical Urbaniana University, from Jan. 25-27.
Pope Francis welcomed those present and immediately observed that it is not common “for followers of twelve religions from around the globe to come together and discuss important questions concerning encounter and dialogue for promoting peace and understanding in our wounded world.”
“The Catholic Church,” Pope Francis stated, “is committed to interreligious dialogue and to furthering understanding and cooperation among followers of different religious traditions.”
The Pope told those gathered, that each one of them, with their own traditions, has wisdom to offer the world, infusing “it with a spirit of warmth, healing, and fraternity.” He thanked the conference for devoting energy to rediscovering the feminine aspects of their respective religious traditions and to showing how they contribute to a culture of encounter.
The in-person gathering is being held to further reflect on the “culture of encounter” from various female and interreligious perspectives, so as to work together on applying principles of dialogue in their contexts.
The conference, and its dialogues, also considered the role of women and women’s leadership in social, economic, religious and political life at local, national and international levels; how to rediscover how our respective religious classics, saints/sages, religious arts and music can be shared to reawaken our spiritual energy, to heal us and the world; how to learn from the stories of women in fostering interreligious dialogue and a culture of encounter.
