TORONTO - Hindus and Catholics are talking, officially, in Canada. The first official meeting of the Catholic-Hindu Dialogue of Canada brought together a dozen scholars and pastors from the two traditions in Toronto Jan. 25.
“Hindus and Catholics inevitably have a lot to say to each other about religious questions — questions of prayer, questions of formation, questions of worship,” said Reid Locklin, a Catholic scholar of Hinduism who is part of the dialogue.
The dialogue teams will meet in person twice a year and hold conference calls from time to time. The next face-to-face meeting is scheduled for August.
“For both traditions, I think there’s a fair bit of misunderstanding among lay believers and certainly among clergy as well,” said University of Calgary religious studies professor Tinu Ruparell from the Hindu side of the dialogue. “Any chance we have to bust a few myths and further understanding, and also to further some mutual interests, is always a good thing.”
Ruparell believes the dialogue can eventually produce materials for classroom use that would help young Catholics and young Hindus better understand their own traditions and how they fit into Canada.
“That’s one area that everyone in our group sees as a crying need, that our youth in the respective traditions just don’t understand their own traditions, much less others,” he said.
The most important thing the official dialogue can achieve is simply to deepen understanding between the groups, said Locklin.
“What’s more pressing is simply the desire for a partner, a companion, someone with whom one can confer and ask questions,” he said.
The official dialogue will be successful if it can be a catalyst for wider dialogue among all sorts of Catholics and Hindus, according to Locklin, a Christianity and Culture professor at Toronto’s University of St. Michael’s College.
The Catholic-Hindu dialogue is the 11th official dialogue co-sponsored by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. In addition to the ecumenical dialogues between Christian churches, the CCCB is involved in interfaith dialogue with Muslims, Jews and now Hindus.
Starting a dialogue with Hindus can be tricky, given the many streams of Hinduism and the absence of any central teaching authority.
“I suspect one of the things we will talk about is the difference between a radically decentralized tradition in Hinduism and a radically centralized tradition you have in Catholicism,” said Locklin.
“There are as many Hinduisms as there are Hindus really,” said Ruparell.
Hindus sometimes say there are 330 million gods in Hinduism.
“That’s a symbolic way of saying there are a lot of different ways to practice being a Hindu,” Ruparell said.