Pope Francis addressed a delegation of the United Associ-ation of Humanistic Buddhism from Taiwan during their visit to the Vatican on an interreligious “educational pilgrimage.”
Pope Francis on March 16 stressed the importance of a culture of encounter, especially in a time marked by “a continued acceleration of changes affecting humanity and the planet.”
The Pope recognized the recent passing of Venerable Master Hsing Yun, the founding patriarch of Fo Guang Shan Monastery, a world-renowned figure in Humanistic Buddhism who was also a master of inter-religious hospitality.
The Pope went on to note that an educational pilgrimage to the sacred places of a religion, such as the one the delegation was undertaking, can also enrich one’s appreciation of the distin-ctiveness of its approach to the divine. He pointed to the master-pieces of religious art that surro-und visitors in the Vatican and throughout Rome, which reflect the conviction that, in Jesus Chri-st, God himself became a “pil-grim” in this world out of love for humanity.
Furthermore, he stressed the importance of religious believers creating oases of encounter, whi-ch contribute to an integral edu-cation of the human person, involving “head, hands, heart, and soul” and leading to the ex-perience of “the beauty and har-mony of what it is to be fully human.”