Pope Francis’ friend Rabbi Abraham Skorka speaks on importance of dialogue

WESTFIELD – Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka, a close friend of Pope Francis, spoke earlier this month at The Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity.

The event was the culmination of Skorka's four-day visit as part of Holy Trinity's Distinguished Scholar Series, which celebrates the parish's 150th anniversary.

Skorka is co-author with Pope Francis of the international bestseller, "On Heaven and Earth." The event was sponsored by Holy Trinity and Temple Emanu-El of Westfield.

Skorka's remarks focused on the vital importance of dialogue in today's world. He also touched upon the central role of faith.

"Moments of dialogue (are) so important and so needed in our reality; the reality of war, and the reality of hate," Skorka said. "The dialogue is the only one that we have in order to silence bombs, the tanks and all the evils. When words disappear, the only thing that we have are bullets, destruction, death. Dialogue is one of the most important things to create love."

Father Anthony Randazzo, pastor of Holy Trinity, posed the question to Skorka, "How do we derive meaning out of terrible circumstances? How do we hope through stressful times?"

"We, in our lives, we have more questions than answers," Skorka responded. "We are trying to understand, 'What is our life? What is the meaning of our lives? … the meaning of our existence?' We're seeking an answer to this really terrible question. And the only one answer we have is faith."

Skorka continued, describing that if a person was a great expert in physics and understood the structure of nature, the constitution of material, the cosmos and how to work with the equations of relativity and physics, such a person would understand "how" things work.

“The bottom question is, 'So, what?’” said Skorka. "The purpose of science is not to give the answer to the question 'why' but to give an answer to the question 'how.'"

"When you are alone with yourself, and you are making an introspective look in your soul, your being," then the question of “why” arises, Skorka said. The question “why” is all about faith, and merely knowing “how” doesn't satisfy the yearning, he explained.

On the topic of dialogue, while Skorka said there are some people who worry that their families will lose their religious identity if they were to engage in interfaith dialogue, "Dialogue is to try to understand the other, not to convince the other." Skorka believes dialogue begins when "you really have the courage to enter yourself deeply."

"My dream: to see Jews, the Catholics and other denominations, and Muslims, in a great movement with a great commitment for the development of real dialogue in the world," Skorka said. "Because this is the only one way to change the world; to change reality. There's no other way."

Citing the goal of relating to one another as brothers and sisters, Skorka explained it doesn't mean brothers look exactly the same, are exactly the same person or are even of the same race and religion. Even biological sisters can look different and can have distinct personalities, he pointed out. However, "siblings are from the same [origin]," he said.

An audience member asked Skorka's view on forgiveness. Skorka responded that he believes atrocities and serious wrongs such as killing and sexual misconduct cannot be forgotten. One cannot just say, “I forgive you, it's not important” because it is important, and one has to pay for what one did.

However, Skorka added, "When you forgive the other, you are giving the other the opportunity to change."

Skorka closed by articulating his sense that dialogue is important not only for leaders from the major religions, but for us all.

"Ultimately, this is the big issue for the whole society, in order to find all together the real meaning of life," he concluded.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Rabbi Abraham Skorka speaks at The Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity