Author: DPA
Publication: Earthtimes.org
Date: December 14, 2007
URL: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/158816.html
The Vatican on Friday defended the "right
and duty" of Catholics to do missionary work aimed at converting people
from other religions and other Christian denominations. The assertion came
in a document titled "Doctrinal Note on some aspects of Evangelization",
issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the Vatican's department
in charge of matters of church orthodoxy.
Lamenting what it said was "growing confusion"
about the Catholic Church's missionary mandate, the document stressed that
that evangelization or spreading of the church's message is "an inalienable
right and duty, an expression of religious liberty".
Respect for religious freedom and its promotion
"must not in any way make us indifferent towards truth and goodness.
Indeed love impels the followers of Christ to proclaim to all the truth which
saves", the 19-page document said.
Similar proclamations by the Vatican that
the Roman Catholic Church believes its message to be the "truth"
and that its mission is to make converts, has angered leaders of other Christian
and non- Christian faiths.
But the Vatican's top Indian-born cleric,
Cardinal Ivan Dias, said he believed the "vast majority" of Hindus
- the largest religious group in India - would welcome the document.
"Most Hindus have a millenarian tradition
of religious tolerance," Dias who heads Vatican's department in charge
of missionary work, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said
speaking at a news conference presenting the document.
Hindus "respect our honesty in declaring
our beliefs about the founder (Christ) of our religion without attempting
to dilute our message," Dias said.
Past episodes of intolerance against Catholic
missionaries in India was the work of "a Hindu minority that grabbed
the headlines" Dias said.
Christianity along with many other religions,
originated in Asia, which has a long tradition of culture and faiths "
each of which contains praiseworthy values," Dias said.
However, some of these other religions and
cultures' practices "were not consistent with the Christian ethos, for
example the caste system, revenge laws, social condition of women, treatment
of widows and prejudices against the birth of female children," Dias
said.
The document also addressed the issue of Catholic
evangelization in countries where other Christians live, stating that Catholics
must carry out their mission with "true respect for the tradition and
spiritual riches of such countries as well as a sincere spirit of co- operation".
In July a similar document by the Vatican
which said that non- Catholic Christian denominations were not full churches
of Jesus Christ, drew criticism from Protestant and Orthodox leaders, especially
from the Moscow Patriarchate.
Friday's document did not specifically deal
with the Catholic Church's relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church,
but "respect for the sensibilities" of denominations who were "recovering
from years of living under Communist atheist regimes," was required,
the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Cardinal Willam
Levada said speaking at the news conference..
The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith,
was headed for many years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope Benedict
XVI.
