Dear Jain Friends,

The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) offers its most cordial greetings and best wishes to you on the occasion of the Birth Anniversary of Tirthankar Vardhaman Mahavir which you commemorate on 25th April this year. May the celebration of this holy festival during these difficult and protracted pandemic times renew your hearts and homes with serenity and peace, and may the teachings of the Tirthankar rekindle your hope for a safer and better future and reinforce communitarian bonds for happiness and peace in the world.

As believers grounded in our own respective religious traditions and as persons with shared values and concerns for the wellbeing of all, particularly in these pandemic times for those who are devoid of hope about their present and future, may we Christians and Jains, individually and collectively and joining together with the people of other religious traditions and people of goodwill everywhere, do everything that we can rebuild hope in the lives of others so that they turn in turn become ‘bearers of hope’ themselves!

We wish you all a happy feast of Mahavir Janma Kalyanak Diwas!

Cardinal Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, MCCJ

President – Pontifical Council For Interreligious Dialogue (Vatican City)