New Delhi 28th Sept 09: The Conference of Religious India (CRI) opened its five- day triennial national assembly in which more than 550 major superiors of about 360 Catholic Religious Orders are participating on
Sunday evening. The Conference is being held at St. Columba’s Edmund Rice Hall and will culminate on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.

Federal Minister for Human Resources Development (HRD) Mr. Kapil Sibal gave the inaugural address to the august assembly on the holy morning of Vijaydashmi. Highlighting some of the main features of the new Right to Education Act, he asked the major superiors in helping the government take its plans of Expansion; Inclusion and Excellence further. Sibal, himself an alumnus of St. Columba’s, thanking the gathering for rendering yeomen services in the field of education, particularly for the poor and the marginalized, said that there was still a lot to be done for the education of the masses.

The other chief guest for the day, Prof. Mushirul Hasan, outgoing VC of Jamia Milia University presented his paper on ‘Tolerance and Pluralism’. He said that ‘Pluralism and Tolerance’ which form the nucleus around which all our societal arrangements are found, have undergone a vast change over the years. One should learn the way of living from our past where our relations with people belonging to different religions were based on love, brotherhood, and mutual understanding. Citing the examples of religious shrines, he elucidated further how people of different religions congregate there without making any discrimination based on one’s religion. “Plurality has been the hallmark of life in India and when people move around doing their
usual chores, they do not do them because of the religion they follow. Reconciliation sustains faith and leads to an expansive outlook” he said. He concluded by saying, “we should promote more and more inter-religious dialogues as harmonious India can be achieved only if we understand and accept each other with all our differences through our dialogues”.

The Conference of Religious of India (CRI) represents more than 125,000 Catholic Religious brothers, priests and nuns in India. Most of the schools, hospitals, social service centers and other institutions run by the Catholic Church are managed and run by this group. Majority of the participants in the “Leadership Conference 2009”, are nuns, though there are also good number of priests and brothers, who have traveled from all around India to participate in the Conference.