Bishop Lee Piché to Discuss Catholics and Interreligious Dialogue

Bishop Lee Piché, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, will examine the question, “Should Catholics be Engaged in Interreligious Dialogue?” in a 4 p.m. lecture Tuesday, Oct. 25, in the first-floor auditorium of the John R. Roach Center for the Liberal Arts on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.

Bishop Lee Piché

The lecture is free and open to the public. Co-sponsors are the St. Thomas-based Center for Catholic Studies, Campus Ministry, Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center and Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning.

A reception will follow in Sitzmann Hall, home of the Center for Catholic Studies, located at the corner of Summit and Cleveland avenues. For more information, contact Lois Dament of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center at (651) 962-5822.

A former member of the St. Thomas philosophy faculty, Piché served as chair of the archdiocesan Commission for Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs from 2000 to 2008.

A graduate of the St. Paul Seminary, he was ordained a priest in 1984 and a bishop in 2009. In addition to serving the archdiocese as pastor of the Church of St. Andrew, he is moderator of the Curia and vicar general.

In his lecture, Piché will discuss interreligious dialogue as well as the anniversary on Oct. 27 of the World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2011 World Day of Peace message, wrote:  "The year 2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the World Day of Prayer for Peace convened in Assisi in 1986 by Pope John Paul II. On that occasion the leaders of the great world religions testified to the fact that religion is a factor of union and peace, and not of division and conflict. The memory of that experience gives reason to hope for a future in which all believers will see themselves, and will actually be, agents of justice and peace."