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Christians in dialogue must propose, not impose, Gospel

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Christians engaged in interreligious dialogue have the duty to propose but not impose the truth of the Gospel, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“It is the love of Christ which impels the church to reach out to every human being without distinction” and it is also love that “urges every believer to listen to the other and seek areas of collaboration,” he told members of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue June 7.

Council members were at the Vatican participating in a June 4–9 plenary assembly in which they laid the groundwork for a new set of pastoral guidelines for interreligious dialogue.

The pope said he was pleased the meeting was reflecting on concrete guidelines and practical concerns, such as religious education in schools, conversion, proselytism, reciprocity and religious freedom.

The pope reminded his audience that “all the church’s activities are to be imbued with love.”

It is this love that encourages Christians to listen to and collaborate with people of other beliefs as well as “propose but not impose faith in Christ who is the way, the truth and the life,” he said.

He also said those who promote and engage in interreligious dialogue must be well formed in the faith. If dialogue is to be authentic, it must be “a journey of faith” and Christians must be “well formed in their own beliefs and well informed about those of others,” he said.

He encouraged the council to organize formation programs for Christian organizations involved in interreligious dialogue and especially for seminarians and university students.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, council president, told the pope there was a “delicate balance to be achieved between truth to be proclaimed and persons who have to be respected in their spiritual journey and their freedom of conscience.”

Christian charity demands “welcoming the other in his diversity but also bears the duty to share our religious patrimony with him,” he said in his written remarks to the pope.

He said the council saw the need for the guidelines for pastors and laity after engaging in interreligious dialogue, with its complexities, and the “danger of relativism and syncretism,” the fusion of different religions.

Cardinal Tauran told Catholic News Service June 9 that this “road map” for interreligious dialogue will offer general guidelines that pastors will have to adapt to local situations.

The document will not represent a departure from or change to 1991 guidelines, “Dialogue and Proclamation,” but will seek to flesh out their principles with more concrete and current concerns and examples, he said.

Cardinal Tauran told CNS the most important guiding principle plenary participants expressed was making sure Christians have a clear sense of their own faith and identity because “you can’t dialogue with ambiguity.”

The French cardinal recalled overhearing two young men — one Muslim, one Christian — talking in a train station about God. The cardinal said the Muslim asked the question: “Can you tell me how God can have a son and how this son can become a man?”

The cardinal said the young Christian man was unable to answer.

He said this scenario was striking in that it offered a clear example how there has been a real “lack of transmitting the content of faith,” especially to younger generations, and that dialogue is not possible if a person does not have a clear idea of what it is to be a Christian.

The cardinal said the pope’s reference to dialogue being “a journey of faith” means that “interreligious dialogue is an intimately religious activity; we are not engaged in sociology, politics. It’s a religious reflection” in which participants must be rooted in prayer and live their faith deeply and authentically.

In his address, Pope Benedict noted that the “great proliferation of interreligious meetings around the world today calls for discernment.”

Cardinal Tauran said there is a danger that in people’s otherwise laudable quest to reach out to people of other faiths, some interreligious initiatives may not be carrying out “rational dialogue,” but risk syncretism and concluding that all religions are equal.

While all those who seek God have the same dignity, “not all religions are equal,” the cardinal said.

He said the future guidelines will try to help bishops and pastors accurately “distinguish which is real interreligious dialogue and which (initiatives) are a bit more ambiguous.”

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