By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
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POPE was persuasive, but leaders of other faiths: Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists are unmoved. Read what they have to say...JPR
Excerpts
NEW DELHI -- Summoning all his moral authority, Pope John Paul II tried Sunday to persuade leaders of other religions here that interfaith understanding should lead them to recognize the Roman
Catholic Church's right to evangelize.
"Religious freedom constitutes the very heart of human rights," the pope, on a three-day visit to India, said at a interreligious gathering
Muslim Fundamentalists uneasy on Evangelization--JPR
Christian proselytizing is fuel for Muslim fundamentalists, but it is also a source of uneasiness between the pope and some of his more moderate and like-minded religious peers.
Buddhist Monk worries about the fine line between indoctrination and inner consciousness..JPR
Samdhong Rinpoche, a Buddhist monk who is the speaker of the Tibetan Parliament in exile, said after leaving the podium he shared with the pope. "But what we fear is that between indoctrination and anybody's inner-consciousness to choose his religion, there is a clean line."
"Any kind of action to encourage, or to persuade or to motivate in favor of any particular religion, that is a form of conversion that we as Buddhists cannot recommend," the monk said.
SM Saraswati declares that Converts are saffron inside and catholics outside...JPR
Shankaracharya Madhavananda Saraswati, the Hindu leader also expressed private misgivings about Christian evangelization. He said later that Hindus could not really ever be diverted from their original faith: "Religion comes from the heart. Something may change outwardly, but what is inside remains with the human being forever. That does not change."
POPE's company line.....JPR
The pope said it was a "mystery" why Christ is largely unknown on the continent and added, "The peoples of Asia need Jesus Christ and his Gospel."
Fundamentalists say Souls are not for sale...JPR
In India, however, Hindu fundamentalists accuse Christian missionaries, who are most active in poor rural and tribal areas, of preying on the most susceptible in society -- buying their souls with education, medical aid
and economic assistance.
Jain Acharya says to catholics: Clean up your house first....JPR
"Religious people are more busy with increasing the number of their followers rather than paying attention to the challenges that beset religion," Acharya Mahapragya, head of the Jain faith, said at the podium. Speaking through a lavender-colored surgical mask -- Jains are Hindus who revere all forms of life and veil their speech to prevent their breath from destroying living micro-organisms -- he was the only leader, besides the pope, to address the issue of conversions publicly.
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