Institute has built up a good rapport with the Office of His Holiness the Pope over the past several years. It has now become customary for the Institute and the Vatican to exchange greetings on each other’s festive days.
Vatican has since then taken to sending greetings to major Jain organisations elsewhere as well to build wider relations.
Letter of greetings for the celebration of Mahavir Jayanti this year has been signed by the President and the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Inter Religious Dialogue, the Office of His Holiness the Pope.
In the letter, they talk about renewing the bonds friendship between Christians and Jains and to collaborate to promote harmony amongst different peoples and with nature.
They also talk about the profound relationship of humans and nature and our joint responsibility to preserve the ecology. They also state that the integral development of individuals and humanity as a whole is possible only in an environment when there is respect and revence for life. Exactly what Bhagwan Mahavir had said ‘parasparopagraho jivanam’ aover 2,600 years ago. It is a great sign of acceptance of jain thinking.
Download a copy of the letter.