May 1, 2005

Your Holiness,

As you assume leadership of the Catholic Church, we at the Buddhist Peace Fellowship would like to offer you heartfelt congratulations and our warmest wishes for the future. This is a critical time in history, and wise leadership in all our religious traditions is necessary. What a wonderful, rare, and challenging opportunity you have to serve as a compassionate shepherd during these troubled times — not only to Catholics, but to people of many religious and secular backgrounds throughout the world.

The Buddhist Peace Fellowship, founded in 1978, is an affiliate of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. Our mission is to be a catalyst for socially engaged Buddhism, and to help all beings liberate themselves from the suffering we experience in our lives, in our relationships, institutions, and social systems. Through the years many of us have participated in interfaith conversations, including Buddhist-Christian and Zen-Catholic dialogues at all levels. We have a great appreciation for the beauty of the Catholic faith and for many Catholics’ passionate dedication to the work of peace. In particular we acknowledge the spiritual healing work of your predecessor, the late Pope John Paul II.

We come together from many diverse Buddhist heritages to wish you a long, productive, and blessed incumbency. Some of us were born into Buddhist traditions, but, particularly in the West, we often come to Buddhism from other faiths and creeds. Our path is, as you may know, a way of life that aims to end suffering. We have tools of faith, devotion, and meditation that are old and well fashioned. The Buddhist path is complete unto itself, but we recognize that many practitioners wish to honor and continue their own precious and long-held faith traditions. Some of us were raised as Catholics, and some continue to adhere to our Catholic faith at the same time that we bring Buddhist practices such as mindfulness and meditation into our life.

While there are ways in which our religious traditions and beliefs are different, those who follow Buddhist teachings share fundamental commitments with Catholic sisters and brothers. We affirm our solidarity with your opposition to war. In our tradition, we frequently refer to the Buddha’s teaching, “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but by love alone does it cease.” We share a profound "reverence for life," as Schweitzer put it so well, and bear the mutual wish that precious human life not be taken from anyone in the name of the state. There are many other areas in which Catholics and Buddhists shall continue to work together, including ending the death penalty, supporting nonviolent methods for resolving conflicts, and ending poverty.

We also know that there are wonderful teachings which many Western Buddhists can learn from the Church — commitment to the poor and the ceaseless work of charitable organizations; well-developed systems of education, healthcare, and other social services; and countless ways in which the Church has freely offered her deep wisdom and great compassion in the lives of millions.

We express our special gladness that you have chosen the name Benedict. The living heritage of Pope Benedict XV has special significance for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship — Benedict XV’s strong voice for peace during World War I coincided with the beginning of our parent organization, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, founded in 1919, as a response to the horrors of war in Europe. We are heartened to know that the Catholic Peace Fellowship and other religious peace fellowships are partners with us in working toward a more peaceful and just society.

There is much we can say to each other. We acknowledge that in the past there have been misunderstandings between our traditions, as there have been among the world’s other great religions. We offer this letter in the spirit of affirming a dialogue already well-begun, grounded in loving speech and understanding. In the words of your first blessing as Pope Benedict XVI, may we together continue with perseverance and good works.

We include you in our daily meditations and will send blessings in the spirit of lovingkindness — as we vow to awaken, together, to the truth of our interconnected nature.

Sincerely and respectfully,

BPF Executive Director

Maia Duerr

BPF Staff

Diana Lion

Rev. Hozan Alan Senauke

BPF Board Members

Joshin Althouse

Trena Cleland

Anushka Fernanadopulle

Anchalee Kurutach

Sozan Schellin

BPF International Advisory Council Members

James Baraz

Michele Benzamin-Miki

Sylvia Boorstein

Melody Ermachild Chavis

Zoketsu Norman Fischer Roshi

Rev. Tova Green

Mushim Ikeda-Nash

Jill Jameson

Kenneth Jones

Kenneth Kraft

Ruben Habito

Rev. Taigen Leighton

David Loy

Rev. Patricia Enkyo O’Hara

Ven. Pomnyun Sunim

Caitriona Reed

Donald Rothberg

Thanks to Gary Gach, Alan Senauke, and many others for input on this letter.

Addendum

In July 2005, we continued correspondence with Rev. Michael Fitzgerald, the President of the Pontifical Council for Secretariat Interreligious Dialogue. This letter was in response to Rev. Fitzgerald's letter to the Buddhist community on the occasion of Vesak.

7 July 2005

Most Rev. Michael L. Fitzgerald, M.Afr.

President, Pontifical Council for Secretariat Interreligious Dialogue

Via Dell' Erba 1, 00120 Vatican City, EUROPE

Dear Archbishop Fitzgerald,

We sincerely thank you for thePontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue’s letter to all Buddhists sent this May in commemoration of the Buddha’s birth.

We appreciate your reaching out to include us in the Catholic Church’s on-going dialogue with the world’s religions.  With respect we note your acknowledgement of Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s landmark document on the Church’s relationship with other religions. We join you in marking the 40th anniversary of this document—which opened the door to interfaith dialogue—and celebrating the ascendancy of His Holiness Pope Benedict, who was present at its creation.

Locally, nationally, and internationally there are many fine occasions for deep conversation and collaboration taking place between Christians and Buddhists. This week we remember the tsunami of December 26, 2004 and the subsequent Asian tragedy. As you point out, months after the fact we are jointly working in an unprecedented relief effort. Just as the colossal waves reached shores as distant as Indonesia and Africa, claiming thousands of lives, so too did the waves mobilize a worldwide relief effort rooted in our common concern for human life.

As Christians and Buddhists we are bound together by much more than our shared human suffering. All faiths offer practices to heal our common suffering.  But we also share practices of joy and liberation. Christians often speak of charity, whose root, caritas, is love.  The Buddhist synonym for charity is dana, selfless generosity that is equally a practice of love.  Surely such love has no room for distinctions of mine and thine, neither Christian nor Buddhist.

May we come together in celebration as well as in crisis. May we seek to understand each other with respect and gratitude. May ordinary people, clergy, and monastics share the healing practices of silence, meditation, and self-discipline. May our coming together in these plant seeds of wisdom. When these seeds blossom, may the nectar of compassion be enjoyed by all.

We look forward to continuing dialogue, contemplation, and cooperation for the sake of all beings.  On the birthdays of Christ and Buddha, Christmas and Vesak. and on all the other days of the year, let us walk together in peace.

In warm fellowship,

Rev. Hozan Alan Senauke                  

Maia Duerr                        

Gary Gach

for Buddhist Peace Fellowship