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Mahatma Gandhi's grandson meets Pope

At Assisi, Pope Benedict XVI met with Mahatma Ghandi’s grandson - a “low profile” figure of great evocative importance, who brought the spirit of the “Great Soul” with him to the celebration of religions, writes Giacomo Galeazzi for the Vatican Insider.
Mahatma Gandhi's grandson meets Pope
Screenshot from the Vatican Insider report
Published: October 28, 2011 08:52 AM GMT
Updated: October 28, 2011 08:52 AM GMT

His grandfather, Mahatma, transformed “nonviolence” into the most powerful weapon in history. Today, in the Franciscan town of Assisi, the Hindu intellectual, Rajmohan Gandhi, signed the pact of peace, presented by Benedict XVI to all men of goodwill. Gandhi was also invited to have lunch at the Pope’s table. (Giacomo Galeazzi, Vatican Insider) As he sat beside religious leaders, religious ministers and presidents of world confessional associations, in the refectory of the Santa Maria degli Angeli convent, his teacher’s shyness stood out. A “low profile” figure, but one of great evocative importance, who brought the spirit of the “Great Soul” with him to the celebration of religions. ... The Indian “Father of the Nation” would have liked the “spirit of Assisi”, Rajmohan Gandhi, who was also present at the first interreligious meeting convened 25 years ago, in 1986, by John Paul II, in the world’s capital of peace. ... His grandfather Gandhi, did not have a syncretistic vision of religions. Instead, he sent Hindus, Muslims and Christians to penetrate and practice their faith, before thinking about embracing another one. Educating religions to open up to the great common truths, but starting by rediscovering their own tradition. Gandhi’s mission was not to politicise religion, but to spiritualise politics. This is why he wanted to link daily actions taken in public life, to morality. FULL STORYRatzinger meets Gandhi (Vatican Insider)

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