CATHOLICISM AND ITS OPENNESS
TO OTHER RELIGIONS
(Lecture given at the Institute
of Catholic Studies and the International Studies Center at John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, 26th October,
2000)
1. Contacts between people of differing religions
and cultures on the world level have been growing in our times more than perhaps at any other epoch in human history.
This is partly explained by greater facility in communications through modern media, and by the increased ease
of travel. But there has also been a change of mentality and a transformation of the way peoples approach one another.
Remarkable is the greater openness of the Catholic
Church towards people of other religious traditions and persuasions. The development has not been without problems,
since some people have resisted it and others have pushed openness beyond the desirable point.
I am therefore happy to be asked by the Institute
of Catholic Studies and the International Studies Center of this renowned university to propose to you some reflections
on "Catholicism and its Openness to other Religions". After a brief word on how the Church sees herself
I shall attempt to state how the Church sees other religions. How does the Church view salvation in this religiously
pluralistic world? The respect which Catholicism has for human freedom and dignity needs specific treatment. Thereafter,
the attitude of the Church towards cultures will be examined. We shall close by examining whether a friendly attitude
towards other religions undermines the necessity of preaching Jesus Christ or puts Catholic identity at risk.
2. The Church's Self-Identity.
Original sin, or the sin of Adam the first man,
caused the fall of humanity from God's grace and friendship. But God did not abandon people to themselves. Again
and again he offered covenants to people and especially through the prophets he taught them to hope for salvation
(cf. Roman Missal: Euch. Prayer IV). The Covenant through Moses on Mount Sinai and the
consequent divine choice of the people of Israel was the last major preparation of humanity for the new and definitive
Covenant in Jesus Christ.
In the fullness of time God sent his only Son to
take on human nature, "to gather together in unity the scattered children of God" (Jn n:52). As the Epistle
to the Hebrews states, "At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors
through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son, the Son that he
has appointed to inherit everything there is" (Heb 1:1-2).
Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, preached,
worked miracles, suffered, died and rose again the third day. During his public ministry he picked 72 disciples
and from them an inner circle of x2 Apostles. He taught them. He prepared them for their mission. He gave them
a universal and divine mandate to preach his Good News of salvation to all peoples "to the ends of the earth"
(Acts 1:8; cf. also Mt 28:18-20; Mk 16:15q6).
They were to baptize those who
believed and thus admit people into his Church which
he entrusted to the Apostles under the leadership of St Peter. Through all of this, the Kingdom of God was inaugurated.
The Church sees herself through her relationship
with Christ as "a kind of sacrament or sign of intimate union with God, and of the unity of all mankind"
(Lumen Gentium, x). She considers herself as the new People of God, the family of God,
the house of God to which all people are called and are related. "All men are called to be part of this catholic
unity of the People of God, a unity which is harbinger of the universal peace it promotes. And there belong to
it or are related to it in various ways, the Catholic faithful as well as all who believe in Christ, and indeed
the whole of mankind. For all men are called to salvation by the grace of God" (Lumen Gentium, 13).
This Church is meant to be at home among all peoples
and cultures, to build spiritual bridges between peoples, to promote union of individuals with God and unity between
peoples, and above all to be Christ's instrument for the eternal salvation of people. The Church is to be the salt
of the earth and the light of the world.
3. How the Church sees other Religions.
The Second Vatican Council notes that in the various
religions people are seeking answers to those profound mysteries which surround human life on earth. Examples are
the meaning of human life, the purpose of human existence, and the nature of moral good and evil.
People moreover want to know how to explain suffering
and sickness and the road to happiness. They wonder about what can be known about death and retribution beyond
the grave. Above all, they investigate what can be known about God or the Ultimate Reality that is the explanation
of every other being that does not have in itself the necessity to exist (cf. Nostra Aetate, 1).
The Catholic Church is respectful towards people
as they seek answers to these and similar questions in the various religions. This attitude of the Church towards
other religions has undergone development along the corridors of Church history these two thousand years. St Paul
spoke to the Athenians about their altar "to the unknown God" (Acts 17:22-34). Among the early Fathers
of the Church there were both positive and negative attitudes towards other religions, as there were to Greek philosophy.
St Irenaeus distinguished four covenants given by God to the human race: in Adam, in Noah, in Moses and in Jesus
Christ. In the Middle Ages, St Francis of Assisi was known for his friendly Christian attitude towards the Muslims.
More could be said about differing attitudes to people of other religions but, for lack of time, we shall go straight
to our own times.
The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) made history
by its positive attitude towards other religions. It is the first General Council to issue a document on the question.
It stated that the Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. Rather she looks with
respect at religions which although differing from her, often reflect a ray of that Truth that enlightens all humanity.
The Council therefore exhorts Catholics to enter into prudent dialogue with the followers of other religions and
to cooperate with them to promote justice, social and cultural values, harmony and peace (cf. Nosma Aetate, 2).
Catholicism has a special relationship with Judaism
because the Jews were the people first chosen by God and prepared along the centuries for the coming of Jesus Christ
the Saviour (cf. Catechism of the Catholic
Church, 839, 840; Nostra Aetate, 4).
With reference to other religions, the Church sees
a great difference between them and herself. The other religions are expressions of the human soul seeking God,
with some beautiful spiritual insights, but also not without errors. Christianity is rather God seeking humanity.
It starts with God breaking into human history in the Incarnation of the Son of God. "The Incarnate Word is
thus the fulfilment of the yearning present in all the religions of mankind: this fulfilment is brought about by
God himself and transcends all human expectations. It is the mystery of grace" (John Paul II: Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 6).
4. Salvation, the Church, and other Religions.
Without intending to enter into a major and detailed
theological discussion on salvation with reference to the Church and other religions, a brief word nevertheless
needs to be said here on the question, because it is a major dimension of the attitude of the Church towards other
religions.
We begin by asserting the universality of God's
salvific will. St Paul tells his disciple Timothy that God "wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge
of the truth" (I Tim 2:4). This salvation is centred in Jesus Christ. "For there is only
one God, and there is only one mediator between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus, who sacrificed himself
as a ransom for them all" (I Tim 2:5-6). This mystery of salvation through Christ is linked with the action
of the Holy Spirit because the Catholic faith "considers the salvific incarnation of the Word as a trinitarian
event" (Congr. For the Doctrine of the Faith: Dominus
Jesus, 12).
By faith and baptism people become members of the
Church and have contact Mth Christ. That is why Vatican II declares the Church now a pilgrim on earth as necessary
for salvation. (Lumen Gentlure, 14). The Church is "the universal sacrament of salvation"
(Lumen Gentium, 48) because always united in a mysterious and subordinate way with
Jesus Christ the Saviour, her head, in God's design she has an unbreakable relation with the salvation of every
human being.
But there are people who, through no fault of their
own, do not know Christ and his Church. They also are included in God's plan of salvation. There are, however,
conditions. They must be sincere in their seeking of God. They must be open to the secret but real action of the
Holy Spirit in them. They should follow their conscience in all matters of right and wrong. Because Christ has
taken on human nature and somehow united himself with every man and woman, God can in ways known to him put people
in link with the saving mysteries of Christ (cf. Gaudium
et Spes, 22). He can give them the grace needed for salvation.
But to say that the followers of other religions
can attain salvation under some conditions does not mean to ignore the fact that in these religions there are limits,
errors and shadows. As St Paul says: "Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their
reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or
else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair" (Rom 1:21,25). This
explains why the Catholic Church "painstakingly fosters her missionary work" (Lumen Gentium, 16)
so that, becoming full members of the Church, people may have access to the fullness of the means of salvation,
a fullness to be found only in the Church which is the ordinary means to salvation. The CCC therefore says: "To
reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together
into his Son's Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church
is 'the world reconciled.' She is that bark which 'in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the Holy
Spirit, navigates safely in this world.' According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured
by Noah's ark, which alone saves from the flood" (CCC 845; cf. also CDF, Dominus Jesus, 20-22).
5. The Church respects human dignity and the right
to religious freedom.
The approach of the Catholic Church to people of
other religions is marked by respect for the dignity of the human person. Every human being is gifted by God with
intelligence and free will so that every individual can choose freely and thus be responsible for personal acts
of commission or omission. This individual responsibility is an important ground for that particular respect for
each person's right to religious freedom.
"This freedom", says the Second Vatican
Council, "means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups
and of any human power, in such wise that in matters religious no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary
to his own beliefs. Nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his own beliefs, whether privately
or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits" (Dignitatis Humanae, 2).
This why "the Church strictly forbids forcing
anyone to embrace the faith, or alluring or enticing people by unworthy techniques. By the same token, she also
strongly insists on a person's right not to be deterred from the faith by unjust vexations on the part of others"
(Ad Gentes, 13). Indeed Canon 748, paragraph 2, insists: "It is never lawful for anyone
to force others to embrace the Catholic faith against their conscience".
This stand is in perfect line with the Catholic
doctrine that the human response to God in faith should be flee. "He who believes and is baptized shall be
saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned" (Mk x6:6). Religion is proposed, not imposed. "The
truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it makes its entrance into the mind at once quietly
and with power" (Dignitatis Humanae,
1).
There have been periods in Church history when this
principle has not been sufficiently respected in practice. Vatican II itself admits this: "In the life of
the People of God as it has made its pilgrim way through the vicissitudes of human history, there have at times
appeared ways of acting which were less in accord with the spirit of the Gospel and even opposed to it" (Dignitatis Humanae, x2). This happened, for example, when people accused of heresy were imprisoned or
burnt. In the 12th March 2000 ceremony in St Peter's Basilica, the Holy Father asked pardon of God for all such
acts.
One point needs to be cleared up. To say that every
individual has the right to religious freedom is not to condone religious indifferentism or irresponsibility, nor
is it to promote the installation of a supermarket of religions. "All are bound to seek the truth in matters
which concern God and his Church; when they have found it, then by divine law they are bound, and they have the
right, to embrace and keep it" (Canon 748 §l; cf. also Dignitatis
Humanae, x).
The Catholic Church in her spirit of openness to
people of other religions also asks them to reciprocate. The principle of religious freedom should apply in all
countries and not only in some, because it is a right of the human person. At the General Audience on the day the
Muslims opened their first ever mosque in Rome, Pope John Paul II said on this point: "A grand mosque is being
inaugurated in Rome today. This event is an eloquent sign of the religious freedom recognized here for every believer.
And it is significant that in Rome, the centre of Christianity and the See of Peter's Successor, Muslims should
have their own place of worship with full respect for their freedom of conscience. On a significant occasion like
this, it is unfortunately necessary to point out that in some Islamic countries similar signs of the recognition
of religious freedom are lacking. And yet the world, on the threshold of the third millennium, is waiting for these
signs! Religious freedom has now become part of many international documents and is one of the pillars of contemporary
society. While I am pleased that Muslims can gather in prayer in the new Roman mosque, I earnestly hope that the
right of Christians and of all believers freely to express their own faith will be recognized in every corner of
the earth. I pray to the Lord for this and invoke the intercession of Mary, his Virgin Mother, who is also honoured
by Islam's faithful" (in L'Osserv. Rom.,
weekly Eng. ed., 28 June 1995, p. 11).
The Catholic Church condemns religious fanaticism
and obviously violence used on others, especially in the name of religion. A religious extremist, no matter how
sincere, has no right to violate the consciences of other people or to use force on them to compel them to toe
a particular religious line. The Church advises us to overcome evil with good, not to meet violence with violence:
"If your enemy is hungry, you should give him food, and if he is thirsty, let 'him drink. Thus you heap red-hot
coals on his head. Resist evil and conquer it with good" (Rm 12:21). Nevertheless, this does not remove the
right, and sometimes the duty, to vindicate one's rights or those of others, provided that the means used are acceptable.
6. Openness of the Church to Cultures.
The Church knows that God who is infinite has given
a wide variety of cultures to the various peoples of the earth. There is a rich multiplicity of ways in which peoples
and nations have refined and unfolded their manifold spiritual and bodily qualities and striven to bring the world
under their control by knowledge and work. Each people has its own way of speaking, celebrating joy and sorrow,
building, dressing and eating. Each people has its own way of looking at life, at the world and at the universe.
Religion is one dimension of culture, a transcendent element of it.
The Church believes that cultural plurality
is a good thing and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is for all cultures, can and should be at home in all
cultures, but should not be identified in an exclusive way with any one culture. The characteristic of universality
adorns the Church that Christ founded. When the Gospel is brought to a new people, the Church does not destroy
the positive and distinctive elements of the culture of that people. Rather, as the Second Vatican Council says,
"does she foster and take to herself, insofar as they are good, the ability, resources, and customs of each
people. Taking them to herself she purifies, strengthens, and ennobles them. The Church in this is mindful that
she must harvest with that King to whom the nations were given for an inheritance (cf. Ps. 2:8) and into whose
city they bring gifts and presents" (Lumen
Gentium, 13).
Every culture has some positive elements and other
negative ones. The Church encourages the positive elements in the various cultures which she meets in her work
of bearing witness to Christ and helps to preserve, adapt or adopt them with the transforming power of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. At the same time the Church brings the Good News of Christ to challenge such negative cultural
elements as superstition, rugged individualism, materialism, hedonism, permissiveness, utilitarianism and exploitation
of women and children. As the Second Vatican Council puts it: "The Good News of Christ constantly renews the
life and culture of fallen man. It combats and removes the errors and evils resulting from sinful allurements which
are a perpetual threat. It never ceases to purify and elevate the morality of peoples. By riches coming from above,
it makes fruitful, as it were from within, the spiritual qualities and gifts of every people and of every age.
It strengthens, perfects and restores them in Christ" (Gaudium
et Spes, 58). "Every culture
needs to be transformed by Gospel values in the light of the Paschal mystery" (John Paul II: Ecclesia in Africa, 61).
The attitude of the Church towards religious and
cultural plurality is seen in a special way by considering how the Church, especially in our times, insists on
the importance of inculturation. The Son of God assumed human nature at a definite time in history and among a
people with its own language and culture. This Incarnate Word is the Word which the Church proclaims to all peoples.
Just as the "Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn l:x4), so the Good News of Jesus Christ proclaimed
to the whole world must take root in the life situation of the hearers of the Word. The Incarnation was complete
and concrete. So also the Gospel must be incarnated in each particular culture (cf. John Paul II: Eccl. in Africa, 60, Eccl. in
Asia,
21).
In the evangelizing activity of the Church, the
Word of God is the seed that sprouts from the good ground. It is watered by divine grace. From the local soil its
draws nourishing elements which it transforms and assimilates into itself. Finally it bears fruit.
Thus the Gospel when it arrives among a people
or culture, rooted in Jesus Christ, built on the foundation of the Apostles, absorbs all that is good, noble and
true among the people and their culture, because to Christ all this is given as an inheritance (cf. Ps 2:8). To
Jesus Christ the nations, symbolized by the Three Wise Men, come bringing their gifts (cf. Lumen Gentium, x3).
The Church then becomes like the bride clothed in the rich variety of her peoples, "the bride who adorns herself
with her jewels" (Is 61:xo).
This is easier said than done. Inculturation requires
as a necessary preparation serious theological investigation in each major socio-cultural area, so that it can
be seen better how faith can seek understanding in the philosophy and wisdom of various peoples (cf. Ad Gentes, 22).
Interdisciplinary cooperation between experts
in theology, ethnology, literature and the arts, but also in Scripture and patrology, will be most valuable. The
findings of any research will have to be submitted, however, to the Bishops who will not omit to consult the people
of God. Only by patient and careful measures will authentic cultural values be transformed through their integration
into Christianity and Christianity become more and more inserted into various cultures, always "without prejudice
to the primacy of Peter's See which presides over the entire assembly of charity" (Ad Gentes, 22;
Lumen Gentium, x3) and in communion with local Churches worldwide (cf. Eccl. in Africa, 59; Eccl. in
Asia, 22; Red. Missio, 52).
Although some missionaries have at times not given
sufficient importance to local culture, there is no lack of clarity in the Church's thinking on the matter. It
is refreshing to note that way back in 1659 the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples gave clear instructions
on this question to .the European missionaries who were being sent to the Far East. It said to them:
"Put no obstacles in their wag, and
for no reason whatever should you persuade these people to change their rites, customs, and wags of life, unless
these are obviously opposed to religion and good morals. For what is more absurd than to bring France or Spain
or Italy or any other part of Europe into China? It is not these that you should bring but the faith which does
not spurn or reject any peoples' rites and customs, unless they are depraved, but on the contrary tries to keep
them ...
... Admire and praise what deserves to be respected"
(Collectanea SCPF l, n. 135, p. 42)
Pope Pius XII was equally clear in his insistence
that missionaries should respect local customs. In his 1951 Encyclical Letter, Evangelii Praecones, he
writes: "The Church from the beginning down to our own time has always followed this wise practice: let not
the Gospel, on being introduced into any new land, destroy or extinguish whatever its people possess that is naturally
good, just or beautiful. For the Church, when she calls people to a higher culture and a better way of life under
the inspiration of the Christian religion, does not act like one who recklessly cuts down and uproots a thriving
forest. No, he grafts a good scion upon the wild stock that it may bear a crop of more delicious fruit.
"Human nature, though owing to Adam's fall
it is tainted with original sin, has in itself something that is naturally Christian; and this, if illumined by
divine light and nourished by God's grace, can eventually be changed into true and supernatural virtue.
"This is the reason why the Catholic Church
has neither scorned nor rejected the pagan philosophies. Instead, after freeing them from error and all contamination
she has perfected and completed them by Christian revelation. So likewise the Church has graciously made her own
the native art and culture which in some countries is so highly developed. She has carefully encouraged them and
has brought them to a point of aesthetic perfection that of themselves they probably would never have attained.
By no means has she repressed native customs and traditions but has given them a certain religious significance;
she has even transformed their feast days and made them serve to commemorate the martyrs and to celebrate mysteries
of the faith" (Evangelii Praecones,
in AAS 43(1951)521).
7. Must Religions and Civilizations Clash?
We live in a world in which there are many religions
and cultures. Most of the major religions have influenced greatly the culture of the region where they exist. Thus
Indian culture cannot be understood if Hinduism is ignored. Many countries in Eastern Asia have a Buddhist matrix.
Islam has influenced Arabic culture to a great extent, even though Christianity came first and also made its contribution.
Europe cannot be properly understood outside its Christian background. And African Traditional Religion has influenced
the local culture in many parts of the continent south of the Sahara.
Since we live in a world in which people of differing
cultures, religions, languages and ethnic groups meet and live, we now ask ourselves: Must such a meeting be rough,
tough, unpleasant, or even violent? Must there be a clash, a collision? It can be so. But it does not have to be
so. What happens depends on people.
Here is where Catholicism comes in. From our reflections
above, one can see that the Church preaches respect for others, acceptance of them with their differences, harmonious
collaboration and indeed love of others. Most religions uphold the Golden Rule. If all observe this rule, then
there will be harmony rather than collision. After all, clash is caused by selfishness, greed, group egoism, chauvinism,
pride, intolerance and spiritual and cultural myopia. Every genuine religion should help to avoid or cure such
defects. In this way the religions will be part of the solution instead of becoming part of the problem.
8. Interreligious Dialogue and Proclamation are
complementary.
As we now move to conclude our reflections, we should
respond to one doubt which can linger in some people's minds. It is the fear that the openness of the Church to
other religions puts at risk the duty to preach Jesus Christ so that people may believe in him, receive Baptism
and thus enter his Church. The answer is that interreligious dialogue, properly understood and faithfully carried
out, helps to show how complementary this element is to proclamation and how the Catholic Church is committed to
both.
Proclamation of Jesus Christ as the one Lord and
Saviour for all humanity is the high point, the apex of evangelization. Jesus sent His Church with a clear mandate:
"Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you" (Mt 28:19-2o).
Saints Peter and John bravely announced to the Sanhedrin: "We cannot promise to stop proclaiming what we have
seen and heard" (Acts 4:20). And St Paul is aware of the consequences of neglecting proclamation:
"Woe to me if I preach not the Gospel" (I Cor 9:16). The mystery of Christ, says St Paul, "must
be broadcast to pagans everywhere to bring them to the obedience of faith" (Rm 16:26).
The Second Vatican Council while showing respect
to other religions, states unequivocally in the same document that the Church "proclaims and must ever proclaim
Christ 'the way, the truth and the life' (Jn 14:16), in whom men find the fullness of religious life, and in whom
God has reconciled all things to himself' (Nostra
Aetate, 2). Recognizing that other believers
are also included in God's plan of salvation, but that they do not have all the abundant benefits which are available
to full members of the Church, the Council says that "the Church painstakingly fosters her missionary work"
(Lumen Gentium, 16).
Pope Paul VI regards proclamation as the apex of
evangelization. "Evangelization", he says, "will always contain - as its foundation, centre and
at the same time summit of its dynamism - a clear proclamation that in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, who
died and rose from the dead, salvation is offered to all men" (Evangelii
Nuntiandi, 27). "Proclamation is the
permanent priority of mission" (Red.
Missio, 44), declares Pope John Paul II.
"To proclaim the name of Jesus and to invite people to become his disciples in the Church is a sacred and
major duty which the Church cannot neglect" (Dialogue
and Proclamation, 76).
Proclamation and dialogue, though not on the same
level, are both elements of the Church's evangelizing mission. They complement each other. Dialogue promotes better
knowledge and communication between the participants. If the preacher of the Gospel is good at dialogue he will
have learned how better t© present Christ and Christianity to people from other religions and cultures. The
necessity of the Church being at home among all peoples and cultures is being stressed more and more in our days.
Dialogue promotes this.
Interreligious dialogue encourages friendly relations
between believers in differing religions. It helps to knock down, or at least to reduce, prejudices, exclusiveness
and intolerance. All this is also in favour of proclamation.
Interreligious dialogue need not cause syncretism
or religious relativism. Every participant in dialogue retains his religious identity. He should sincerely witness
to his faith among the other believers.
Speaking to the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical
Council for Interreligious Dialogue on 28 April 1987, Pope John Paul II said: "Your Assembly must thus reaffirm
the commitment of the Catholic Church both to dialogue and to the proclamation of the Gospel. There can be no question
of choosing one and ignoring or rejecting the other. Even in situations where the proclamation of our faith is
difficult, we must have the courage to speak of God who is the foundation of that faith, the reason for our hope,
and the source of our love. It is also true that in those circumstances in which the proclamation of the Gospel
bears much fruit we must not forget that dialogue with others is a Christian work desired by God. Moreover, the
proclamation of the Gospel has to take due notice of the religious and cultural background of those to whom it
is addressed" (in Insegnamenti di Giovanni
Paolo H, X, I, 1987, p. 145o).
Respected President, Faculty and Students of John
Carroll University, and honourable guests, it is an honour for us to be given the grace to belong to this One,
Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, and at times such as ours as the Third Christian Millennium opens. It is
also a responsibility. May the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of our Saviour and Mother of the Church, obtain
for us the grace to respond with generosity, commitment, openness and perseverance.
