{"id":328578,"date":"2016-09-24T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-24T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/2016-luminosa-award-to-sikh-leader\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:05:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:05:10","slug":"2016-luminosa-award-to-sikh-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/2016-luminosa-award-to-sikh-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"2016 Luminosa Award to Sikh Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TarunjitUnity, dialogue, communion<\/strong> \u2013 these are words that describe the heart of the mission of the Focolare, and these three words sum up the commitment of Dr Tarunjit Singh Butalia, a scientist at Ohio State University in Columbus, USA<\/strong>. On September 18, 2016 he accepted the 2016 Luminosa Award in Hyde Park, NY. \u201cYour decade-long tireless effort in building bridges on various levels\u201d said Focolare president, Maria Voce<\/a>, \u201cdeserves our admiration and deep appreciation. We feel solidarity and fraternal ties with you and with the Sikh community in the promoting, together with others, peace and care of our common home.\u201d Urged by a strong belief that religions have a crucial role to play in the great work of interreligious dialogue, in 2011 he accepted the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI to participate in the World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi. In his acceptance speech the scientist recalled the friendly invitations to interreligious meals and picnics that marked the beginnings of his contacts with the Focolare Movement<\/a>. A friendship, he explained, that over time developed into trust. He stressed the particular role that religion has always played in American society, precisely because it is a nation of immigrants. While former waves of immigrants seamlessly blended into the people after a few generations, many immigrants from the last 50 years \u2013 like Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, Jains and Baha\u2019i \u2013 want to maintain their religious identity. Butalia said \u201cthey have made the United States one of the most cosmopolitan countries in the world.\u201d He also observed the importance of acknowledging pluralism as a value \u201cwhere each part maintains its identity and yet remains part of the harmonious whole.\u201d \u201cWe have to focus on building relationships,\u2019 he said; \u201cwe need to be able to talk about our differences.\u201d \"\"Dr Butalia then proposed to take a step further than the Golden Rule<\/strong> (Do to others as you would want them to do to you,\u201d Mt 7:12). He called his version the \u201cPlatinum Rule\u201d: \u201cDo to others as they would want you to do to them,\u201d moving beyond the assumption that the other people would like to be treated the way that you would like to be treated yourself.\u201d He then invited the 130 participants to \u201clisten more than we speak\u201d and to never compare the \u201cbest of our religion with the worst of the others.\u201d Referring to Islamophobia, Butalia remembered that all religions are interdependent on each other and that we have to stand up against discrimination against any faith. Closing, he quoted a disciple of the Sikh founder Guru Nanak, \u201cNo one is my enemy, and no one is a stranger. I get along with all.\u201d

\"sikh

Dr Tarunjit Butalia with the Sikh delegation<\/p><\/div> The award ceremony was preceded by the 7th Catholic-Sikh retreat,<\/strong> organized by the Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Sikh Council of Interfaith Relations. Twenty-five representatives of the Catholic Church and the American Sikh gathered at Mariapolis Luminosa to get to know each other in a deeper way. \u201cThis meeting was a great example for the kind of dialogue called for by Pope Francis, which is the dialogue of friendship,\u201d said Anthony Cirelli, Director of the Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. The Luminosa Award for Unity<\/strong> has been sponsored by the North American Focolare Center for Education in Dialogue since 1988. Past recipients<\/strong> include the late Cardinal John O\u2019Connor, Archbishop of New York; Norma Levitt, former president of Religions for Peace (RFP) and honorary president of Women of Reform Judaism<\/a>; Rev. Nichiko Niwano, President of the Japanese lay Buddhist organization,Rissh\u014d K\u014dsei Kai<\/a>; His Royal Highness Lukas Njifua<\/a> Fontem, King of the Bangwa People of Cameroon; and Imam Warith Deen Mohammed<\/a>, American Muslim leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conferred on Dr Butalia from Ohio State University for his commitment to peace-building and dialogue. The award spotlights people who are dedicated to building bridges of unity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}