National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue Holds Annual Meeting

The National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue convened in Washington, DC at the Washington Retreat House on September 8-9, 2024.

Since 2022, members have been engaging in a multi-year study of the theme of “Journeying Together” with the first subtopic being “Social Friendship in our Muslim and Catholic Traditions.” Presentations on this topic were given by Prof. Zeki Saritoprak (Dialogue and Friendship: Lessons from Beiüzzamon Said Nursi’s Treatise on Brotherhood) and Prof. Pim Valkenberg (Interreligious Dialogue and Social Friendship in Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti). 

Six new members were welcomed to the dialogue at this meeting: Dr. Semiha Topal, Dr. Lailatul Fitriyah and Imam Seyed Ali Ghazvini on the Muslim team and Kate Middleton, Dr. Jordan Denari Duffner, and Dr. Marianne Farina, CSC, on the Catholic side. 

At the meeting, Dr. Farina presented on the topic “Deep Listening on our Journey Together” and provided an update on the second topic that will be studied in the coming year: “The Ecological Crisis: Catholic and Muslim responses.” 

The dialogue is currently chaired by H.E. Cardinal Blase Cupich and Imam Kareem Irfan. 

The next meeting will take place in Washington, DC in 2025 and quarterly Zoom meetings will be convened for the sharing of member updates and to discuss issues of mutual pastoral concern to the representative organizations.