EWTN News, Sep 23, 2025 / 10:35 am

Interreligious dialogue is not a compromise of Catholic identity but a necessary path forward in a divided and darkening world, said Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, the new prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.

In an interview with EWTN News conducted during the Eighth Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, held Sept. 19–20 in Kazakhstan , the Indian cardinal defended the Church’s diplomatic outreach across religious lines as an expression of faith, not its dilution.

“Interreligious dialogue means building up relations. Without relationships, we cannot move ahead,” he said. “We have to really know what they believe and share our concerns. Otherwise, we take the opinion of other people and think that they a

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