Pope Benedict speaks: Renunciation of truth is ‘lethal to faith’
By:
On Tuesday, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s private secretary read out a speech written by the retired pope at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome. In it, Pope Benedict emphasizes that the mission of the Church is to preach the truth of Christ even though the tendency today in the interests of realism and peace is to renounce the truth. This, says Benedict, “is nevertheless lethal to faith.”
According to Francis X. Rocca of the Catholic News Service, Benedict recalled that despite the Christian vocation to preach the truth of Christ, “many inside and outside the church ask themselves today” if we should not change. “Would it not be more appropriate to meet in dialogue among religions and serve together the cause of world peace?’”
“In fact, many today think religions should respect each other and, in their dialogue, become a common force for peace,” wrote Benedict. “According to this way of thinking, it is usually taken for granted that different religions are variants of one and the same reality.”
“It is assumed that the authentic truth about God is in the last analysis unreachable and that at best one can represent the ineffable with a variety of symbols,” he continued. “This renunciation of truth seems realistic and useful for peace among religions in the world. It is nevertheless lethal to faith. In fact, faith loses its binding character and its seriousness, everything is reduced to interchangeable symbols, capable of referring only distantly to the inaccessible mystery of the divine.”
“In fact, many today think religions should respect each other and, in their dialogue, become a common force for peace. According to this way of thinking, it is usually taken for granted that different religions are variants of one and the same reality,” the retired pope wrote. “The question of truth, that which originally motivated Christians more than any other, is here put inside parentheses. It is assumed that the authentic truth about God is in the last analysis unreachable and that at best one can represent the ineffable with a variety of symbols. This renunciation of truth seems realistic and useful for peace among religions in the world.
“It is nevertheless lethal to faith."
Related: http://www.thecompassnews.org/2014/10/retired-pope-says-interreligious-dialogue-substitute-mission/
No comments:
Post a Comment