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“Pope John Paul II,” announced his Eminence Cardinal Francis Arinze from the United Nations podium, gives personal example as a promoter of reconciliation and harmony between peoples of different religions. The promotion of peace is part and parcel of what it means to be a Catholic.” The personable Arinze, 69, of Nigeria is president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. He addressed 2,000 world religious leaders gathered for the Millennium World Peace Summit August 29.
On September 5, with the blessings of the same Pope John Paul II, the Vatican released Dominus Jesus, a document [sidebar] which does little to “promote reconciliation and harmony between peoples of different religions.” It declares all non-Christian religions “gravely deficient.” Even all non-Catholic Christian churches “are not Churches in the proper sense,” but “suffer from defects.”
The world press was merciless. “Vatican Rejects Equality of Religions,” roared Associated Press. “Vatican Claims Monopoly on Salvation,” declared the Washington Post headlines. “The Vatican’s Sad Statement on Salvation,” headlined Religion News Service. Their article said, “The pronouncement ... is so pathetic it seems cruel even to notice it. Better to let the belligerent words of Vatican conservatives pass unheard through the sands of reality.”
The leader of the Anglican Church, Rev. George Carey, was miffed by “the idea that Anglican and other churches are not “proper churches.” Muzammil Siddiqi, president of the Islamic Society of North America, retorted, “Our position is the same thing-that the Catholic position is deficient.” A Jewish leader asked, “Who spoke directly to God to know who’s deficient?” Sat Maharaj, a leading Hindu of Trinidad, “took comfort in our knowledge that the Catholic Church holds no exclusive franchise to heaven.”
On October 1, the Pope offered to clarify, “Our confession of Christ as the only Son isn’t arrogance that deprecates other religions but an expression of joyous gratitude.” He added that the document “clarified essential Christian elements” and “doesn’t intend to express lack of consideration for the churches and ecclesiastic communities.” Ms clarification neither refuted nor corrected any statement in the original text.
The document’s timing was quite
suspect. In theory, Arinze already knew of Dominus Jesus, which the Pope
approved June 16. Then again, perhaps Arinze was being sabotaged by its
author, the conservative Cardinal Ratzinger. Both are on the short list
to succeed the ailing John Paul. Or perhaps what we witnessed is simply
the Vatican’s two-faced policy: professed respect for other religions in
a public forum and studied contempt among themselves. Dominus Jesus only
reinforces the Pope’s message-made clear when he last visited India-that
the goal of the Catholic Church is conversion and that Interreligious dialogue
by Catholics is a strategic means to that end.
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