Vatican - The Chairman of Muhammadiyah, Din Syamsuddin, was in the Vatican from 11 to 13 November 2014. This visit was to follow the Third Catholic-Muslim Forum, a forum for dialogue between the Catholic and Muslim leaders worldwide. This forum, which is a collaboration between the Vatican and the Common Word Movement (kalimatun Sawa ') which is based in Amman, Jordan, is held every two years, starting from 2010 at the Vatican, and then it was followed in 2012 at the Dead Sea, Jordan.
The first Forum was attended by 21 leaders of each party, and the second Forum was attended by 23 figures. In the third Forum in the Vatican, the forum was only attended by 13 leaders of the Catholic and Muslim parties. the representatives from the Catholic were Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran (President of the Council of Interreligious Dialogue Pointifical, Vatican), Father Miguel Ayuso Guixot, Vatican, Mgr. Khaled Akasheh, Bureau of Islam, Vatican, Prof. Vincenzo Buonomo, Pontifical Lateran University, Rome, Mgr. Hario Antoniazzi, Archbishop of Tunis. meanwhile, the Muslim party was represented by Prof. Hossein Nasr, clerical / Muslim scholars from Iran, Prof. Abdullah Scheleifer, Egypt, Prof. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Shaikh Naim Ternava, the Grand Mufti of Kosovo, Prof. Aref Ali Nayed, Libya, and Prof. Din Syamsuddin, Indonesia.
This third forum brought the theme of Working Together to Serve Other, and discussed sub-theme of the service of youth, Enhance Interreligious dialogue, and the service of society with a speaker from each party. Din Shamsuddin spoke as the representive of Muslims in the third session of the Working Together to Serve Society (Cooperation Serving Society).
In his paper, Din Shamsuddin discussed the theological perspective of inter-religious cooperation, and sociological reasons of the need of the developing of the cooperation in order to overcome the cumulative damage to the world, as well as other forms of cooperation should be developed in various aspects of culture.
At the end of the activity, all participants were greeted by Pope Francis in his office in the Vatican, and each participant received a memento of Pope Francis. For Din Syamsuddin, this was the second time he was received by the Pope Francis after the first visit in 2014 when attending other event which was also held in the Vatican. compared with Pope Benedict XVI, Din Syamsuddin had met the Pope four times in various conferences in Italy.
During a visit to the Vatican / Rome this time, Din Syamsuddin, who was given an Award of Italian Star (The Italian Star) from the Government of Italy two years ago, took time to meet Italian leaders including Imam Yahya Sergio Fellavicini, Muslim leaders in Italy, which was also invited as a participant of The 5th World Peace Forum which will be held by Muhammadiyah and the Center for Dialogue and Cooperation Among Civilizations (CDCC) 20-23 November 2014 in Jakarta.
Tags: Din Syamsuddin, the Vatican, the Figures, the Third of the Catholic-Muslim Forum