Father William McIntire, MM, a Spiritual Father for Bangladesh, did not expect to be embraced by a group of Muslim scholars at the First International Conference on Science and Spirituality held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on January 7th and 8th. He told me before the conference that he wanted to play a minor role in it. . But, by the end of the conference, Father McIntire was embraced by the conference chairman, Professor Anisuzzaman of Dhaka University, as the “Father of the Conference.” Father McIntire’s ability to express a deep spiritual and human solidarity came shining through in his presentations to the Conference. As a disciple and close associate of Mother Theresa, he expressed a deep sense of humility and all-embracing love through his prayerful presence and presentations to over 90 conference participants, most of whom were from the Muslim faith. He was able to communicate his message in both English and the national language of Bengali.
This first ever meeting of Muslim scholars from Bangladesh and Turkey with a small group of Christian representatives and one Buddhist scholar from Thailand’s Mahidol University led to a final statement entitled the Dhaka Declaration. The Declaration calls for the establishment of a World Council on Science and Spirituality with a second international meeting scheduled for Istanbul, Turkey later in 2008. Representatives at the conference from the Turkish Women’s Cultural Association led by Cemelnur Sargut, a noted Sufi spiritual leader, agreed to assume responsibility for conference planning.
This conference also coincided with the establishment of the Bangladesh Center for the Study of Science and Spirituality (BCSSS) of which Father McIntire is a founding member. The Center director, Doctor AKM Shamsur Rahman, stated that the purpose of the Center is to “reduce the distance between the worlds of science and spirituality and show that they are complementary and not contradictory.” One of the retired (Chief) Justices of the Bangladesh legal system (Supreme Court), Honorable Mohammad Abdur Rouf, spoke of a need to explore a common human spirituality that is rooted in every race, culture and religious tradition. Doctor Kemal Aydin, MD, Senior Health Minister for the Government of Turkey expressed his desire to develop a philosophy of health and human services based upon the core principles of the monotheistic faith traditions. Other speakers explored topics on Islamic law, politics and morality as they relate to science and spirituality.
Another conference presenter, Doctor Eugene McCarthy, World Bank consultant and friend of Father McIntire for the past 30 years, expressed his support for the conference goals and its importance for the future of developing nations. Doctor McCarthy has worked directly with the highest ranking official in Bangladesh’s interim government, Doctor Fakhruddin Ahmed, and oversaw several development projects that affected Bangladesh while working with the World Bank. Bangladesh has a population of approximately 140 million with approximately 85% of the population living well below the poverty line. Over 90% of the population is Muslim. Hindus and Christians make up the rest of the population. Bangladesh is struggling to emerge from a history of internal discord and frequent natural disasters since it achieved independence over 40 years ago.
One of the major themes of the conference was the relationship of health and healing to the monotheistic faith traditions and Buddhism. Doctor Rahman, principal conference organizer, and Doctor Gerald Grudzen, a classmate of Father McIntire, have written a book about the historic traditions of health and healing within the monotheistic faith traditions entitled, Spirituality and Science: Greek, Judaeo-Christian and Islamic Perspectives (Author House, 2007).
Father McIntire spoke of a new partnership between Christians and Muslims that can help to dispel the myth that religious belief is opposed to science. Recent best selling books have exploited the presumed opposition between religion and science. Historically, science and religion coexisted within a common philosophical and cosmological worldview during the first four centuries of Islam’s development in the Middle East and Spain. Jewish, Christian and Islamic scholars played a key role in the development of the medical sciences during this period along with many other scientific developments in other fields as well such as chemistry and pharmacology.
Over the past 27 years Father McIntire has formed close bonds with Muslim, Hindu and Christian families. He is the secretary to the Bishop of Mymensingh, Bishop Ponen Paul Kobi but he has had the ability to reach out beyond the small Christian community in Bangladesh. It has enabled him to be recognized as Father to many families that we visited after the conclusion of the conference. These included Muslim and Hindu families that recognize him as their spiritual father just as the Conference did. The Conference speakers helped us to explore on an intellectual level what Father McIntire has achieved in his ministry in Bangladesh over the past decades. We are all members of the same human family and we need to embrace each other as brothers and sisters and recognize the One God who is Father and Mother to us all.
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