Fr Patrick McInerney honoured for pioneering work in Interfaith Dialogue

In recognition of his commitment to interfaith engagement in Australia, Fr Patrick McInerney, Director of the Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations, was awarded the inaugural Interfaith Dialogue Award by the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, in September. The award was jointly presented by Abbas Raza Alvi, President of the Indian Crescent Society of Australia (ICSOA), and Elder Philip Barton, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, during the Eleventh Annual Religious Liberty Lecture hosted by the School of Law and Business.

This award celebrates Fr Patrick’s lifelong dedication to fostering understanding, respect, and collaboration between people of different faiths, especially between Christians and Muslims. Scroll down to read his inspiring acceptance speech, where he shares powerful insights and practical tips for engaging in meaningful interfaith dialogue.

Thanks

I thank the University of Notre Dame for bestowing on me the inaugural interfaith dialogue award. I thank Professor Michael Quinlan, National Head of the School of Law & Business, for announcing the award. I thank my friends, Abbas Raza Alvi, President of the Indian Crescent Society of Australia, and Elder Philip Barton, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for presenting me with the award.

Shared

Of course, since interfaith is about encounter and collaboration with the followers of other faiths, an interfaith award is never an individual honour only. It is shared with dialogue partners, in my case, with Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and Zoroastrian.

Since interfaith goes hand-in-hand with intra-faith, an interfaith award is also shared with one’s colleagues. I mention Kim Chong and Brian Vale; also, Ryan Epondulan, who worked with me for five years.

We all build on the work of those who went before us, so I acknowledge also Sr Pauline Rae smsm and Sr Kathleen Collins SSpS. They led the Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations when it was founded in 1997. At that time, the Centre was a pioneer of interfaith engagement in Sydney.

Interfaith Dialogue

Allow me to say a few words on interfaith dialogue. I have summarised my thoughts in five “up” imperatives: show up; front up; face up; shut up; and speak up.

• Show up: Attend faith, interfaith, religious feast days, and community events regularly, and keep on attending, year after year, in good times and in bad. Your frequent presence is a sign of commitment and solidarity. It is being faithful to interfaith!
• Front up: Come to interfaith in the integrity of your faith. Don’t compromise. Don’t water it down to make it more ‘acceptable’. Be prepared to be different. Be true to yourself. Be authentic. Be sincere in your faith. When engaging in interfaith, be faith-filled! 
• Face up: Just as you come in the integrity of your faith, want and allow your dialogue partner to do the same, to be faith-filled in his or her own way. Respect their alterity, their otherness, their difference. You will not agree on everything – nor should you; nor should they! – but at least respect each other’s sincerity. And when you don’t agree on the relative merits of your respective religions, respect your common and inviolable dignity as human beings.

Here, I think of one of my favourite interfaith quotes. In his welcome address to Pope Benedict, who met with faith leaders during his 2010 visit to the UK, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks said:

We celebrate both our commonalities and differences, because if we had nothing in common we could not communicate, and if we had everything in common, we would have nothing to say.¹  

• Shut up:  If we are to fulfil the “face up” imperative, then we must shut up. We must listen, and listen deeply, to what our dialogue partner says, to what they do not say, and as Pope Saint Paul VI said so sensitively, “to what they have it in their hearts to say”. (ES, 87)² By deep listening, we create space, openness, invitation, and welcome for the other. 

Too often people think of dialogue as two or more people talking. But if interfaith dialogue is talking only, and no one is listening, then it is a waste of time. Especially in our current world situation, listening is even more important. If we are to bridge the chasm that has opened up between Jews and Muslims as a result of the devastating Israel-Hamas war, we must listen, and listen deeply, to understand the existential angst of our Jewish sisters and brothers confronted by the 7 October 2023 terrorist attack; and we must listen intensely to appreciate the decades-long anguish and sense of isolation of our Muslim sisters and brothers in relation to Palestine, especially when their legitimate grievances are not given due consideration.

• Speak up: Finally, after listening, we must speak up, not in a sectarian or partisan way, not taking sides with one or other religion. Rather, we must speak up for universal common values. We must speak up for international law (and after listening to Professor Keith Thompson’s 11^th Annual Religious Liberty Lecture this evening, I would add, for other international human rights legislation). We must speak up in defence of our common, universal, inviolable human dignity. We must speak up for the human and religious values of peace, justice, truth, goodness, mercy, kindness, forgiveness, and reconciliation. If we remain silent in the face of manifest wrong, if we do not speak up for what is right, then interfaith has indeed failed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I again thank the University of Notre Dame for honouring me with the inaugural interfaith dialogue award. I am grateful for the personal honour, but even more, because the award recognises and affirms the importance of interfaith dialogue in our multi-religious society in Australia and in our world in these very challenging times.

May we all, believers of all faiths and other worldviews, reach out to each other and get to know, accept, love, and cooperate with one another, sisters and brothers caring for each other on our common pilgrim journey through life, together caring for our common home. 

Rev Dr Patrick McInerney, Director, Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations.

• Read more from the current Columban Interfaith eBulletin.