E/CN.4/2000/65 page 38 more anti-Judaism among Christians or anti-Christian sentiment among Jews, but rather a shared mutual respect, as befits those who adore the one Creator and Lord and have a common father in faith, Abraham”. 146. For other religions, particularly Buddhism and Hinduism (as mentioned in the Declaration Nostra Aetate), the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue has not set up any special committees, as it did for the Muslims and Jews. Dialogue has been maintained, however, by means of visits and meetings, which have been organized/sponsored by the Council and through messages addressed to Buddhists for the feast of Vesakh and to Hindus for the festival of Diwali. Buddhists also receive study fellowships from the Nostra Aetate Foundation. The dialogue has been more limited lately with the Buddhists, partly owing to political events affecting religious affairs in Asia, and partly to ensure that the Council’s action is not interpreted as interference in the internal affairs of certain countries. Dialogue is also maintained, although less formally, with Shintoist, Jainists, Sikhs and Confucianists. 147. With regard to traditional religions (“religions which, unlike the world religions that have spread into many countries and cultures, have remained in their original sociocultural environment”, according to the definition given in the Pastoral Attention to Traditional Religions of Asia, America and Oceania, issued by the Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, 21 November 1993), also referred to as tribal, primitive, primeval, native or indigenous religions, the action of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, chiefly in Africa, Asia, America and Oceania, has concentrated partly on the followers of these religions and partly on people who have converted to Catholicism while maintaining their ties with their traditional religion. Where converts are concerned, the Catholic Church has recognized that a problem of syncretism arises owing to the fact that traditional values have not been fully integrated within a Christian lifestyle. The Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue is trying to solve this problem by organizing meetings, discussions and visits and by conveying the following message: “Evangelization does not destroy your values but is incarnated in them; it consolidates and strengthens them”. With regard to those who adhere to traditional religions and do not wish to become Christians, dialogue is understood in the sense of encounter, mutual understanding, respect, and recognition of which traditional religious values can be integrated within the common heritage. 148. Inter-religious dialogue concerns also non-Catholic Christians, under a mandate assumed by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in 1960. According to this Council, great strides have been made in this area in terms of understanding and respect since Vatican II, and more precisely since the Declaration on Religious Liberty (Dignitatis Humanae). It was said that the difficulties encountered historically with non-Christians (especially Orthodox and Protestant), leading to differences on certain issues, were in fact related more to political than to ideological considerations. With regard to the Orthodox Churches, since the end of the cold war the activity of the Catholic Church, which is interpreted as a form of proselytism in areas considered as traditionally Orthodox, has given rise to a certain tension. On the other hand, the activities of Protestants, and especially Evangelists, in Latin America, an area traditionally under the influence of the Catholic Church, become a problem when they turn into aggressive proselytism among Catholics, such as attempts to win converts on the doorsteps of churches or offers of services in return for conversions. In response to these tensions, the Council recommends dialogue at a national level (through conferences of bishops assisted in each