Focolare Founder Promotes Golden Rule

LONDON, JULY 25, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The key to interreligious dialogue could be as simple as the Golden Rule, says the founder of the Focolare Movement.

Chiara Lubich made this comment in a video-message she sent to some 600 participants of a meeting in England organized by Focolare on the theme: "What is the future of a multicultural, multiethnic and multireligious society?"

Attributing her ideas to the writings of St. Augustine, she rejected the idea that a period of migration must necessarily end in a clash of civilizations.

She proposed that a better solution would be to begin a dialogue based on the golden rule: "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

Following this rule is what enables one "to put oneself in the other's skin, to penetrate what it means to be Buddhist, Muslim or Hindu," she said.

This dialogue, adds Lubich, could also be a means to prevent terrorist fundamentalism.

The meeting, called a Mariapolis, included a group of Muslim participants. The event began July 24 in Windermere, in the Lake District of northern England.