Focolare founder in Asia for dialgue with Buddhists

Michael Michai Cardinal Kitbunchu

Function: Archbishop of Bangkok, Thailand

Title: Cardinal Priest of S Lorenzo in Panisperna

Birthdate: Jan 25, 1929	Country: Thailand

Elevated: Feb 02, 1983	More information: www.catholic-hierarchy.org

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Focolare founder in Asia for dialgue with Buddhists
Apr 14, 2005

VATICAN (CWN, Jan. 03, 1997) -- Chiara Lubich, the founder of the Focolare movement, has spent the first days of the new year in Asia, where she is speaking about her spiritual experiences to both Catholic and Buddhist audiences in Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

Upon her arrival in Bangkok on December 31, Lubich met with that city's Cardinal Michal Kitbunchu. Today, she is scheduled to meet with one of the most prominent Buddhist spiritual leaders in Thailand.

The Focolare founder, who received UNESCO's prize for work toward world peace in 1996, was invited to Thailand by Suprom Manayatera, the spiritual master of some 3 million Thai Buddhists, and his disciple Thongrattana Thavorn, who also asked her to speak at Ching Mai University in Thailand on January 6. On the following day she will meet with Buddhist monks and lay faithful at Suprom Manayatera's monastery.

On January 5 Lubich will be awarded an honorary doctorate by St. John's University in Bangkok in recognition of "the power of communication of her message of peace and unity." On January 22, she is scheduled to address the general assembly of the Filipino bishops' conference. Finally, her Asian tour will conclude in Taiwan at Fu Jen University, the first Chinese Catholic university, which was moved from Beijing to Taipei in 1961. There too she will be given an honorary doctorate, and speak at a meeting organized by the nation's episcopal conference as well as a meeting of her own Focolare followers.

Chiara Lubich founded the Focolare movement to pursue the realization of the prayer of Jesus, "that all may be one." She argues that the obstacles to dialogue between Catholics and Buddhists "have fallen," and "new perspectives" are now opening up avenues toward further dialogue. This is her third trip in Asia.

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