By HUỆ KHẢI (Dũ Lan LÊ ANH DŨNG)
RELIGION Publishing House (Hanoi 2016)
*
FROM HEART TO HEART
The English version of Nostra
Aetate extracted herein is the one Vatican
Nostra Aetate (In Our Time) consists
of five brief sections numbered from 1 to 5, of which the third and the fourth
ones especially refer to Islam and Judaism. In the said English version,
excluding the title and fifteen endnotes, these two mentioned sections of 816
words account for 51% of the whole 1594-word document. My present writing does
not include the third and the fourth sections since I would like to have a
multi-faith dimension rather than certain specific religions.
On 26 October 2015, Australian Bishops Commission for
Ecumenism and Inter-religious Relations disseminated a writing on the occasion
of the golden anniversary of Nostra Aetate.[2] Quoting
the Commission’s noteworthy writing, whenever adding some words absent from the
original text, I place them in square brackets.
This writing is a Caodai believer’s modest contribution to
the golden anniversary of the Declaration which has impressed its seal upon
mankind’s modern history. Following a tolerant religion, Caodai believers
naturally agree with and support Catholic communities’ interfaith dialogues
resulting from Nostra Aetate. Particularly for our Caodai community, I think that
a knowledge of Nostra Aetate is much helpful. Thanks to it, we can better
understand the reason and significance of Catholic contacts with us Caodaists.
We had better be prepared for such meetings.
After my writing had been printed in Công giáo và Dân tộc / Catholicism and Nation, a monthly magazine (issue No. 250, October 2015), I
altered a few words and expressions thereof and put it into English. I
sincerely appreciate my respectable teaching colleague Tú Đoàn, who read my
translation and offered lots of helpful remarks.
I also would like to express
my deep thanks to our noble and generous donors, who always strongly,
unceasingly, and enthusiastically support our Programme of Joining Hands for
Free Caodai Publications. As an obvious result, thousands of my present booklet
can be placed in your hands.
With heart and soul, we pray to God for blessings upon our
benefactors, their ancestors and relatives as well.
Namo Caodai the Immortal
Mahabodhisattva Mahasattva.
December 2015
HUỆ KHẢI
