Five years after the heinous attack on a mosque in Quebec City that left six men dead, the Social Action Office announces some good news that may help heal the wounds.

By Louise Royer, Director of the Social Action Office

With the onset of the pandemic, the Quebec Interfaith Roundtable was established to interact with Public Health. The organization, which is chaired by Montreal diocesan priest Msgr. Pierre Murray, is a place for representatives of various confessions, including Muslims, to become acquainted with one another and engage in dialogue.

The Centre Justice et foi, with its Vivre ensemble wing, has long been following discussions and making its position known on such issues as secularism and immigration. It hosts a dialogue group bringing together Christian and Muslim feminists (Maria’M).

On February 27, ‘‘The Itinerants speak to us,’’ an event in memory of Lieutenant-Governor’s Award recipient Father John Walsh, will be held by the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism and the Interreligious Forum for Peace. The event will recognize Father Walsh’s extraordinary contribution to interfaith dialogue and to the cause of the homeless.

The song KUNE (Marchons ensemble), a work by artist Geneviève Labbé produced in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism, features the harmonious blending of artists of different faiths pronouncing the word ‘Faith’ in many languages:

KUNE Geneviève Labbé et Artistes invités / Guests Artists - YouTube

Religions for Peace (Religions pour la Paix) operates in Montreal under the leadership of Pascale Frémond and internationally with territorial guardian and co-chair of the Religions for Peace World Council, Grandfather Dominique Rankin.

Since the criminal justice system has convicted Alexandre Bissonnette of the mosque murders, another path lies open, that of restorative justice. In that spirit, the Centre de services de justice réparatrice is holding a workshop on healing the memories: guérison des mémoires.

Families of the victims of the mosque massacre and Poly se souvient, in conjunction with those of Dawson College and Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute, have written a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Legault demanding a ban on assault weapons.

In October 2020, Pope Francis published his encyclical letter on fraternity and social love, Fratelli tutti. Many groups within the diocese have made an in-depth study of this work, among others the consecrated life and social action communities.

These groups then solemnly adopted, in their October 2021 meeting with Archbishop Christian Lépine and Bishop Alain Faubert, the document that had been issued jointly by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, and which the Holy Father quotes at the end of the encyclical. By his inclusion of that joint appeal within the universal address of Fratelli tutti, the Pope conferred on the document, known as the Abu Dhabi declaration on ‘‘Human Fraternity,’’ its great importance to the entire Church. It was proclaimed on February 4, 2019, and the United Nations recognized that day as International Day of Human Fraternity, and that week as World Interfaith Harmony Week (February 1 – 7). May this expression of faith and social love continue to touch people in ever greater numbers!

Human fraternity for world peace and living together

In the name of God, who has created all human beings equal in rights, duties and dignity, and who has called them to live together as brothers and sisters, to fill the earth and make known the values of goodness, love and peace;

In the name of innocent human life that God has forbidden to kill, affirming that whoever kills a person is like one who kills the whole of humanity, and that whoever saves a person is like one who saves the whole of humanity;

In the name of the poor, the destitute, the marginalized and those most in need, whom God has commanded us to help as a duty required of all persons, especially the wealthy and those of means;

In the name of orphans, widows, refugees and those exiled from their homes and their countries; in the name of all victims of wars, persecution and injustice; in the name of the weak, those who live in fear, prisoners of war and those tortured in any part of the world, without distinction;

In the name of peoples who have lost their security, peace and the possibility of living together, becoming victims of destruction, calamity and war;

In the name of human fraternity, that embraces all human beings, unites them and renders them equal;

In the name of this fraternity torn apart by policies of extremism and division, by systems of unrestrained profit or by hateful ideological tendencies that manipulate the actions and the future of men and women;

In the name of freedom, that God has given to all human beings, creating them free and setting them apart by this gift;

In the name of justice and mercy, the foundations of prosperity and the cornerstone of faith;

In the name of all persons of goodwill present in every part of the world;

In the name of God and of everything stated thus far, [we] declare the adoption of a culture of dialogue as the path; mutual cooperation as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard.”

 

The Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb and Pope Francis, Abu Dhabi, February 4, 2019