Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ.

-Chapter 53, The Rule of St. Benedict

Interreligious relationships on a Catholic university in the Benedictine tradition spring from our Catholic roots, not in spite of them.  Catholics believe that all humanity forms one community (Nostra Aetate, 1).  The Church, therefore Benedictine University Ministry, "rejects nothing of what is true and holy in [other] religions" (NA, 2).  Catholics understand themselves as being one with Jews (NA, 4), as having a high regard for the monotheism of Muslims (NA, 2), and as admiring the understanding of the "state of perfect liberation and...supreme illumination" of Hinduism (NA, 2).

Of the enrolled Benedictine University students who have indicated a religious preference on their applications, 54% are Catholic, 25% are Protestant, 15% are Muslim and 3% are Hindu.  Our Muslim Student Association and Hindu Student Association are robust and have blended into the community as all of our immigrant parents did before us.  We believe that this diversity is an opportunity for us to create a space that is a living example of how religious persons can live together, work together and admire one another.

We welcome the world to Benedictine University as St. Benedict has bid us to do.  The section for Interreligious Affairs in University Ministry welcomes all faculty, staff and students to dialogue, join in our interreligious initiatives and pray as Jesus taught us to pray, "that they all might be one."