What the Dalai Lama Told a Catholic Priest About Christ

What's attractive about Buddhism is not only that there's no God, but also that Buddhism is a very highly disciplined intellectual system and training system to cleanse the mind, purify the mind, but also expand the capacity of the mind.

For decades, Buddhism has attracted many of the people who drifted away from Christianity, and according to a 2025 Pew Research survey, nearly half of all Buddhists in the United States were raised in another religion, many of them Christian.

That spiritual shift was on display this year in Milan, where thousands gathered for Vesak, a Buddhist celebration commemorating the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha.

Many were young Italians.

Buddhist leaders shared the stage with the Archbishop of Milan as part of the Catholic Church's long-running dialogue with Eastern religions following a main message from the Vatican marking the celebration.

Few Catholic priests have immersed themselves in Buddhism as deeply as Father Francis Tiso, a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, a former advisor to the Vatican on Buddhist Christian dialogue, and to the US Bishops on interreligious affairs.

He has traveled extensively through Asia and met privately with the Dalai Lama, who shared with him a surprising idea about Buddhist meditation and Christianity.

So that, that, that idea did not offend the Dalai Lama, that the Christian-

No, he, he said it.

That was his idea of what a Christian could do.

In this conversation with Catholic News Service, Father Tiso explains why the real challenge of interreligious dialogue is not simply coexistence, but the recovery of religious consciousness in a secular age.

Religious consciousness is a connection with the original intention of God in creating the universe.

So when I talk to my Buddhist friends or my Muslim friends or my Jewish friends, we find signs of the presence of the word in the way they tried to work out the challenges of life.

This is Vatican Access.

What's attractive about Buddhism is not only that there's no God, but also that Buddhism is a very highly disciplined intellectual system and training system to cleanse the mind, purify the mind, but also expand the capacity of the mind.

For decades, Buddhism has attracted many of the people who drifted away from Christianity, and according to a 2025 Pew Research survey, nearly half of all Buddhists in the United States were raised in another religion, many of them Christian.

That spiritual shift was on display this year in Milan, where thousands gathered for Vesak, a Buddhist celebration commemorating the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha.

Many were young Italians.

Buddhist leaders shared the stage with the Archbishop of Milan as part of the Catholic Church's long-running dialogue with Eastern religions following a main message from the Vatican marking the celebration.

Few Catholic priests have immersed themselves in Buddhism as deeply as Father Francis Tiso, a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, a former advisor to the Vatican on Buddhist Christian dialogue, and to the US Bishops on interreligious affairs.

He has traveled extensively through Asia and met privately with the Dalai Lama, who shared with him a surprising idea about Buddhist meditation and Christianity.

So that, that, that idea did not offend the Dalai Lama, that the Christian-

No, he, he said it.

That was his idea of what a Christian could do.

In this conversation with Catholic News Service, Father Tiso explains why the real challenge of interreligious dialogue is not simply coexistence, but the recovery of religious consciousness in a secular age.

Religious consciousness is a connection with the original intention of God in creating the universe.

So when I talk to my Buddhist friends or my Muslim friends or my Jewish friends, we find signs of the presence of the word in the way they tried to work out the challenges of life.

This is Vatican Access.