The International Interreligious Colloquium Started Today at Vatican

By Alison Lesley --
17 Nov 2014 --

From November 17-19, the Vatican is hosting an international interreligious colloquium on the “Complementarity of Man and Woman.”

A Vatican conference is bringing religious leaders and scholars together “to examine and propose anew the beauty of the relationship between the man and the woman.”

Pope Francis opens the International Interreligious Colloquium on the Complementarity of Man ad Woman at the Vatican. pic.twitter.com/ax3lDIMrN1
— John Eastman (@jeastman714) November 17, 2014

In the 21st century, people from many different religious groups have been working hard to create a better understanding of each other, and what different beliefs there are in the world. With this in mind, a special meeting of religious leaders has been organized to be held within the Vatican, the central location of the Catholic Church, for three days in November. The conference is being called “An International Interreligious Colloquium on The Complementarity of Man and Woman,” and will last from November 17 to November 19.

As the Vatican is the official host of the meeting, it is expected that the Catholic delegates to this colloquium will defend the traditional conservative view of marriages being a partnership between one man and one woman, although this has not been declared officially by the Catholic Church. Muslim and Jewish representatives will also be attending, as will Protestant leaders from the United States of America. Particularly important attendees list includes people such as Wael Farouq who is Muslim, and president of the Tawasul Cultural Center in Cairo, and Manmohan Singh of the Sikh World Council.

Many analysts believe that there is a split in the higher levels of the Catholic Church about how exactly the Church should approach people in non-traditional families and living arrangements, particularly those who are homosexual and support gay marriage. However, that topic should not dominate the entire three days worth of proceedings, as there are many other topics that Helen Alvare, one of the administrators of the event, believe as just as important to discuss – such as single parent families, cohabitation, and men and women in the workplace.

It is not known exactly how the discussions of the International Interreligious Colloquium will be reported to the media, if they will be at all.