Mosque visit brings hope for the future
The following column originally was published in the Sept. 24 bulletin for St. Paul on the Lake Parish, Grosse Pointe Farms.
On Sept. 21, junior high students from our school, St. Paul on the Lake, visited the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn. We'd been planning the visit since last spring, as part of our Tuesday Advisory Program (TAP). TAP brings students together in small groups for all three junior high grades. They learn to work together on a variety of projects under an adult faculty or staff member's close supervision.
As I said, we'd been planning to visit the mosque since last spring. Response to Pope Benedict XVI's recent quotation in a speech on the relationship between faith and reason gave us pause. Is this a good time? Should we wait? I've known the religious and lay leaders at the Islamic Center for some years, dating back to my seminary assignment. They came to Sacred Heart Major Seminary and talked with the seminarians about Islam's tenets shortly after the 9/11 horror. Cardinal Adam Maida visited the mosque the day after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. He meets regularly with the Imam and other religious leaders.
In light of the violent response to Pope Benedict's remarks, some children and parents raised very reasonable questions about our going forward as planned. I was convinced that we would receive a warm and gracious welcome, and we did. We talked with the students about what Muslims believe before we left, and we'll have further reflection on our experience now that we're home. That's one very good way to learn.
I was very proud of our students, and you can be, too. I've said, pretty much since I arrived, that our Catholic school is an integral part of our parish ministry. St. Paul's seeks to share the good news with all, and in a special way with the next generation. Our students were respectful and inquisitive as they listened to explanations about Islam when we arrived. They witnessed children from the Islamic school as they came to pray. Our students were present for an experience few elementary school students would ever have. They conducted themselves like young ladies and gentlemen, and their parents, our whole community, can be proud.
I hope and expect that our afternoon will help them appreciate our Catholic faith even more. In our further reflection, I'll ask them how this experience invites them to look more closely at how we pray, and how we know Jesus Christ. I hope that our students will be respectful, even in disagreement, holding firmly to what we hold so dear, and what we so want them to hold dear: our faith in Jesus Christ. I hope they'll be better Catholics for having taken our afternoon journey to Dearborn. I believe they will.
I believe that's what our Holy Father was talking about at Regensberg. It's a darn shame his real point got lost in all the folderol that followed. And lives were lost. But, for an afternoon, a hundred Catholic youngsters took a step in the right direction. We can hope and pray that the next generation will do a better job at respecting and understanding.
Msgr. Patrick Halfpenny is the pastor of St. Paul on the Lake Parish and archdiocesan ecumenical and interfaith adviser.
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