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UCAN: Top Vatican official visits temple, meets Hindu priests

UCANews
11/22/2006

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OLD GOA, India (UCAN) – Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the pontifical councils for culture and for interreligious dialogue, visited a Hindu temple, met with its priest and was "fascinated" by the experience.

Cardinal Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, arrived Nov. 19 for a five-day visit to Goa state, a former Portuguese colony and a Catholic stronghold on the western Indian coast. Its capital, Panaji, is 1,910 kilometers (about 1,185 miles) southwest of New Delhi.

The cardinal came to chair the Nov. 21-23 meeting of Christian cultural centers that his council organized. On the evening of his arrival he visited some Hindu sites.

One visit was to the Mangueshi temple near Ponda, 20 kilometers (about 13 miles) south of Panaji. The temple is dedicated to Lord Mangueshi, an incarnation of Shiva, the destroyer God of the Hindu trinity.

With the visit, the cardinal, who is also president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, became the first Vatican official to visit a Hindu temple in Goa in recent history.

"His visit has sent the right signals to the Hindu community. The local media have played up the visit very favorably," said Father Ubaldo Fernandes, editor of the Catholic weekly Vavradeancho Ixxt (Worker's Friend).

The temple priest and temple committee welcomed the Vatican official.

Cardinal Poupard also visited a Hindu family living next to the Vamaneshvar temple in Davlli, where he met father and son temple priests. This was followed by his visit to the mutt, or Hindu monastery, in Kavllem.

"The cardinal saw Hinduism at work. All along he had read about Hinduism. Now, he was fascinated by Hindu culture, especially the third eye of Shiva," Father Theodore Mascarenhas, an official heading the Asia Desk at the Pontifical Council for Culture, told UCA News.

Father Mascarenhas, a native of Goa who accompanied the prelate, described the cardinal as "surprised to see young children being trained to become temple priests at the mutt." The French cardinal also appreciated the Hindu family values he saw, the priest said.

On Nov. 20, Cardinal Poupard inaugurated the Contemporary Christian Art Gallery promoted by the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman at the Episcopal Palace in Old Goa, the one-time Portuguese colonial capital.

Speaking after a prayer service, he said the art gallery promises to be a marvelous expression of interreligious and intercultural understanding and dialogue.

Addressing a press conference on Nov. 20, the Vatican official said his visit is aimed at promoting "a sincere and authentic interreligious dialogue carried out in mutual respect, openness and charity."

In March 2006, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Poupard president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, "in order to favor a more intense dialogue between men of culture and exponents of various religions."

Soon after his arrival from Rome, the cardinal also visited an orphanage, a Catholic monastery and a seminary. He also visited a museum that preserves art and artifacts from the 451-year-long colonial period, which ended in 1961.

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