Retired pope says interreligious dialogue no substitute for mission
By Francis X. Rocca, Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY - Retired Pope Benedict XVI said dialogue with other
religions is no substitute for spreading the Gospel to non-Christian
cultures, and warned against relativistic ideas of religious truth as
"lethal to faith." He also said the true motivation for missionary work
is not to increase the church's size but to share the joy of knowing
Christ. (To be honest with you, this makes great sense because it is sober and common sense!)
The retired pope's words appeared in written remarks to faculty
members and students at Rome's Pontifical Urbanian University, which
belongs to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Archbishop Georg Ganswein, prefect of the papal household and personal
secretary to retired Pope Benedict, read the 1,800-word message aloud
Oct. 21, at a ceremony dedicating the university's renovated main
lecture hall to the retired pope.
The speech is one of a handful of public statements, including an interview and a published letter to a journalist, that Pope Benedict has made since he retired in February 2013.
"The risen Lord instructed his apostles, and through them his disciples in all ages, to take his word to the ends of the earth and to make disciples of all people," retired Pope Benedict wrote. "'But does that still apply?' many inside and outside the church ask themselves today. 'Is mission still something for today? Would it not be more appropriate to meet in dialogue among religions and serve together the cause of world peace?' The counter-question is: 'Can dialogue substitute for mission?'
"In fact, many today think religions should respect each other and, in their dialogue, become a common force for peace. According to this way of thinking, it is usually taken for granted that different religions are variants of one and the same reality," the retired pope wrote. "The question of truth, that which originally motivated Christians more than any other, is here put inside parentheses. It is assumed that the authentic truth about God is in the last analysis unreachable and that at best one can represent the ineffable with a variety of symbols. This renunciation of truth seems realistic and useful for peace among religions in the world. (In clear and unambiguous ways, Pope Benedict teaches the truth and raises the alarm in today's Church cascading toward universalism and falsehood! His Holiness raises an alarm!)
"It is nevertheless lethal to faith. In fact, faith loses its binding character and its seriousness, everything is reduced to interchangeable symbols, capable of referring only distantly to the inaccessible mystery of the divine," he wrote. (I am telling you, these are bombshell words in today's Church!)
Pope Benedict wrote that some religions, particularly "tribal religions," are "waiting for the encounter with Jesus Christ," but that this "encounter is always reciprocal. Christ is waiting for their history, their wisdom, their vision of the things." This encounter can also give new life to Christianity, which has grown tired in its historical heartlands, he wrote.
"We proclaim Jesus Christ not to procure as many members as possible for our community, and still less in order to gain power," the retired pope wrote. "We speak of him because we feel the duty to transmit that joy which has been given to us." (Thank you Pope Benedict for your clear, beautiful, serene and prophetic words for a Church in turmoil today, a Church in a mess!)
The speech is one of a handful of public statements, including an interview and a published letter to a journalist, that Pope Benedict has made since he retired in February 2013.
"The risen Lord instructed his apostles, and through them his disciples in all ages, to take his word to the ends of the earth and to make disciples of all people," retired Pope Benedict wrote. "'But does that still apply?' many inside and outside the church ask themselves today. 'Is mission still something for today? Would it not be more appropriate to meet in dialogue among religions and serve together the cause of world peace?' The counter-question is: 'Can dialogue substitute for mission?'
"In fact, many today think religions should respect each other and, in their dialogue, become a common force for peace. According to this way of thinking, it is usually taken for granted that different religions are variants of one and the same reality," the retired pope wrote. "The question of truth, that which originally motivated Christians more than any other, is here put inside parentheses. It is assumed that the authentic truth about God is in the last analysis unreachable and that at best one can represent the ineffable with a variety of symbols. This renunciation of truth seems realistic and useful for peace among religions in the world. (In clear and unambiguous ways, Pope Benedict teaches the truth and raises the alarm in today's Church cascading toward universalism and falsehood! His Holiness raises an alarm!)
"It is nevertheless lethal to faith. In fact, faith loses its binding character and its seriousness, everything is reduced to interchangeable symbols, capable of referring only distantly to the inaccessible mystery of the divine," he wrote. (I am telling you, these are bombshell words in today's Church!)
Pope Benedict wrote that some religions, particularly "tribal religions," are "waiting for the encounter with Jesus Christ," but that this "encounter is always reciprocal. Christ is waiting for their history, their wisdom, their vision of the things." This encounter can also give new life to Christianity, which has grown tired in its historical heartlands, he wrote.
"We proclaim Jesus Christ not to procure as many members as possible for our community, and still less in order to gain power," the retired pope wrote. "We speak of him because we feel the duty to transmit that joy which has been given to us." (Thank you Pope Benedict for your clear, beautiful, serene and prophetic words for a Church in turmoil today, a Church in a mess!)
6 comments:
I like Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI. He says what he means. Clearly.
The Church exists through both fair and bad weather. Maybe we need some "bad" weather -- might wake up the bad-weather friends.
Two thousand years ago and being in the presence of Truth wasn't popular -- VERY bad-weather, indeed. The bad-weather friends endured it then. We can do no less now.
When Catholic teaching, clearly stated, is described as a bombshell that's when it becomes evident we are in a crisis.
The teachings of the Church with all her dogma and doctrines are not stumbling stones to living out the Gospel faifthfully. The teachings of the Church are a lived expression of the love Christ has for us.
Until bishops in high positions stop deriding that part of Revelation, ie Tradition, that they don't like, the Church will be engulfed in confusion and chaos. And as Archbishop Chaput recently stated when asked about the recent synod, "confusion is of the Devil".
The bombshell isn't the clear stating of Catholic truth, it is the one who is stating it and a day after the actual closing of the Synod on the Family--who is saying it and for the first time in history by an emeritus pope!
When I see or hear or read Benedict, joy is not the emotion that I feel. He seems rather serious...somber.
He seems to long for a smaller, purer, more elite kind of church.
The very last thing he wants is to smell like the sheep. It seems that he'd rather keep his distance to avoid that.
Anon 11:37
I get the same impression of Christ in the Gospels. Seemed like a serious person to me. He also knew that some of His teachings would be unacceptable to people as clearly described in John 6. His response..."let them go".
When I read his words, thoughts so clear and well ordered, I feel like I breathed fresh air.
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