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The Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta, Most Rev. Dr. Peter Olukayode Odetoyinbo has charged representatives of the Catholic Church at the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to always engage other members of the Christian Association on Justice, Peace and mutual co-existence.

Bishop Odetoyinbo stated this at a meeting/workshop, put together by the Department of Mission and Religious/CSN Bloc for the Church representatives at CAN/NIREC, held at Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Cathedral hall, Itesi, Abeokuta.

Participants at the meeting/workshop included representatives of the Diocese at CAN and NIREC at the State, LGA/LCDA, Area, and Unit levels and bloc leaders, including priests and catechists.

While admonishing them not to force conversion on anybody, the Local Ordinary of Abeokuta Diocese noted that inter-religious dialogue and ecumenism are very important in the Church.

"The Church places much emphasis on dialogue with people of other faith. Therefore, there should be no quarrel, conflicts with them, but engage them in a peaceful manner. It is about promoting the mission of Jesus Christ among the people.

In his paper titled, "Understanding Christianity and Islam in Dialogue",

Director for Interreligious Dialogue, Catholic Diocese of Oyo and 

Consultor, Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims (CRRM) Vatican-City, Rev. Fr Joseph Ogundipe, said that the Catholic Church is committed to working for the reunion of all Christians.

"While ecumenism coordinates the Church’s efforts to develop closer relationship and better understanding of Christians of other denominations, interreligious dialogue does same with people of other religious beliefs in our society". 

He noted that Ecumenism is meant to foster unity in faith and worship among Christians, the goal of interreligious dialogue is to achieve better understanding, respect and mutual enrichment, enabling all of us to respond to God’s call in our different faith backgrounds. 

"Even in places where Catholics are in the majority, there is still the need to meet with others; Protestants, Pentecostals and the new Christian sects springing up on a daily basis. We cannot shy away from the adherents of traditional religion that have been an enduring legacy amongst us as many of our young people are showing more interest daily in this". 

"Such dialogue is understood as a meeting point of different religions in an atmosphere of freedom and openness, to listen to the others, to try to understand them in their religious beliefs and hopefully to seek possibilities of collaboration".

Rev. Fr. Ogundipe opined that Catholic Church’s commitment to ecumenism was based on the conviction that a divided Christianity "openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages the holy cause of preaching the Gospel to every creature, emphasizing that "search for Christian unity was one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council".

"If the religious understanding and challenges of the local community and the grassroots are well managed, there will be less tension from religious misunderstandings and chaos that lead to various religious riots and wars". 

He lamented that many religious leaders and followers today only seek to understand their religious practices not what actually makes the religion itself, saying that its historical developments and epochs are not their concern, stressing that "we cannot truly claim or defend who we are, if we do not understand the antecedents of what makes us today".

Each Diocese is expected to take up all forms of dialogue as model of evangelization within her jurisdiction in the sense that; at these different levels of the community, issues of common concern are discussed among the local people and their interest on daily living is shared. 

It is also the openness that this model of dialogue gives that helps people of different religions and faith based groups to know each other better and share their joys and sorrows through daily life experiences; as in religious festivals and other celebrations.