USA:Acclaimed Hindu and Indo-American leader Rajan Zed has been invited by US Catholic leadership aimed at improving Hindu-Catholic relations.In a communiqué, Reverend Francis V. Tiso, Associate Director Interreligious Relations in United States (US) Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to Zed, "…. I would like to meet with you to discuss possibilities for improving Hindu-Catholic relations… please come for a visit to our Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs…"
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, based in Washington DC, is an assembly of the hierarchy of the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, besides other things, actively seeks ways to foster through dialogue and other forms of cooperation the relations of the Catholic Church in the US with the Jewish community in this country, with the people of the non-Christian religions and with the secularist world.
Catholic Diocese of Reno recently awarded a special certificate to Zed for "vibrant interfaith communication".
Rajan Zed has read the historic first Hindu prayer in United States Senate in Washington DC in July last, besides first Hindu prayers in Nevada, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Washington, Arizona Senates, Nevada Assembly and Arizona House of Representatives during the last few months. He is one of the panelists for "On Faith", a prestigious interactive conversation on religion produced jointly by Newsweek and washingtonpost.com. Nevada Clergy Association, drawn from various religions and denominations, honored him sometime back.
Roman Catholic Church, headed by Pope Benedictus XVI Joseph Ratzinger, is the largest Christian denomination with about 1.12 billion adherents, representing about 17.2 of global population.Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion followers. Moksha (liberation) is the ultimate goal of Hinduism.