News of DIMMID

Dom William Skudlarek, OSB
Secretary General

The year 2017 was marked by two events, a Dialogue on ‘The Unity of God – Unity in God’ with Shiite Muslims, held at Nairobi 2nd-7th September, and a Catholic-Buddhist Dialogue ‘Walking Together on the Path of Non-Violence’, held at Taiwan 12th-16th November. The latter was sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

For the meeting at Nairobi a report is available on the DIM website under the rubric Dilatato Corde (Volume 7, no 2, July-December, 2017). It was the first interreligious meeting sponsored by DIMMID in Africa. It constituted an important advance in the creation of a continental commission of DIMMID in Africa.

For the meeting at Taiwan, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue asked DIMMID to invite Asiatic Catholic sisters to take part, and three Korean sisters did so. One of them, Sister Scholastica Park, gave a conference on ‘The Rule of St Benedict and the way of healing’. Dom William Skudlarek, Secretary General of DIMMID, made a contribution on Thomas Merton.

After the meeting Dom William and the three sisters met some Taiwanese Buddhist religious to plan a meeting of feminine Catholic monasteries and Buddhist nuns at Taiwan in the following year. Contact has been made between the Secretary General of DIMMID and the President of the CIB to determine the best way of forming an international group representing women who belong to Catholic monastic communities to take part in this interreligious meeting.