Question 4.79

4.79 In a completely different area, what are we to think about the dialogue between the Church and the various Christian denominations and also the other religions?

This question is extremely important and delicate. There is a widespread idea today that religions have equal value and that the mission of evangelizing all nations is a thing of the past; that we should let everybody follow his own religion. After all, the argument goes, a person would be saved by following his own religious tradition.

John Paul II, wishing to study in greater depth the permanent meaning of mission, declared in his encyclical Redemptoris missio that although the Church recognizes the importance of other religions, she must consider it her priority to proclaim Christ as the one Savior of the world. The solemn introduction to that encyclical shows clearly that only an erroneous understanding of religious liberty and respect for other peoples can restrain the force of the missionary impulse.

A book by Father Jacques Dupuis, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism,/ and the philosophical study by the Presbyterian John Hick, who argues for relativizing various religious positions as a prerequisite for any interreligious dialogue, led the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to publish on January 24, 2001, the Notification on Father Dupuis’ book. In this document, the congregation denounces “notable ambiguities and difficulties on important doctrinal points, which could lead a reader to erroneous or harmful opinions. These points concerned the interpretation of the sole and universal salvific mediation of Christ, the unicity and completeness of Christ’s revelation, the universal salvific action of the Holy Spirit, the orientation of all people to the Church, and the value and significance of the salvific function of other religions.”

The Christological statement in the Acts of the Apostles that “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12) and the Vatican Council II, in its declaration on the relations of the Church with non-Christian religions, Nostra aetate, are clear. The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true in other religions; she considers with sincere respect ways of acting and living that may reflect a ray of the truth that enlightens all mankind. Nevertheless, she proclaims and is obliged to proclaim that Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6), in whom men and women must find the fullness of religious life.

The Spirit is the one who prompts us to proclaim the great works of God. I always feel the duty to repeat the exclamation of Saint Paul, in the name of the whole Church: “If I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16).

How can we not feel a certain uneasiness, given the negative tendency manifested in the weakening of missionary efforts toward nonChristians? This decline is the sign of a crisis in faith and the result of the relativism that has very profoundly invaded the Church herself.

Could the desire to continue asserting the place of Christ and of the Church within mankind cause us to be described as intolerant fundamentalists? In the search for truth, I think that it is necessary to acquire the ability to come to terms with oneself as “intolerant”, in other words, to have the courage to tell someone else that what he does is bad or wrong. Then we will be able to take someone else’s criticism when it is meant to open our eyes to the truth. A little while ago I was struck by the remarks of the philosopher Thibaud Collin, who forcefully declared during a conference: “The guarantee of future progress in one’s personal search for the truth is the keenness with which one assigns weight to what each person says about reality. All this presupposes that man is not the measure of reality and that he therefore has to receive the true and the good.” Then, turning his attention to John Paul II and Benedict XVI, he added: “Because the last two popes are lucid about the depth of the crisis of postmodern civilization, they therefore invite Catholics to practice a downright Socratic boldness. Socrates, indeed, is the one who sought the truth his whole life long. He unceasingly questioned people about their custom so as to arouse in them the desire for the true and the good. But far from being undecided, he always subjected himself fully to the force of reason within him. It is necessary to reread his dialogue with Crito a few hours before his death in order to grasp the reasons for his death. So as to remain faithful to the end to the consistency of the divine calling that he had received, he refused to compromise with the Athenian people and with his childhood friend, who was nevertheless begging him to escape. Far from reveling in the Sophistical use of reason, Socrates bears witness to its enlivening freshness. Maybe that was why Cardinal Ratzinger, in commenting on the encyclical Fides et ratio, ventures to make this comparison: ‘I would say that in it the pope [John Paul II] is attempting what Vatican II attempted also: to come to terms with the Socratic function of restlessness, the challenge not to be resigned to the weakness of reason, which no doubt exists, and to try to take a step farther toward the truth.’”

Finally, the great strength of contemporary nihilism comes from a certain political consensus that ceaselessly fosters it. We must not be conformed to this world but allow ourselves to be transformed by renewing our way of thinking, so as to be able to discern God’s will. Often the media present speaking out against the Church’s Magisterium as a form of courage. In reality, no courage is needed for that, because then we can always be sure of the applause of the public. It takes courage, rather, to adhere to the faith of the Church, even if that contradicts the scheme of the modern world. Following Saint Paul, Benedict XVI called for a “mature” faith. This is the faith of the Christians who die every day for Christ in Nigeria, in Pakistan, in the Middle East, and throughout the world. … It is the magnificent faith of Assia Bibi, a [Pakistani Christian] woman who is threatened with death for blasphemy and is fighting for her life.

In the name of truth, we must proclaim and announce Jesus Christ, the only Savior of the world, to all nations. This proclamation is in no way an obstacle to dialogue among the different religions.

Relations among various confessions must not be a stumbling block in mission work. On the contrary, it should reinforce it. John Paul II, then Benedict XVI, and now Francis are only reaffirming the faith of the Church. The missions are the diamond in the rough of the Bride of Christ. The Son of God is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one can go to God except by him. Jesus is the one gate to heaven: there is neither intolerance nor religious fundamentalism in this loving proclamation. In a commentary on Psalm 85, Saint Augustine made this clear statement about the Church: “Our Lord Jesus Christ alone, the Son of God, is the savior of his body; he prays for us, he prays in us, and we pray to him.”