Arrogance - Disappointing first read | November 10, 2008
The Vatican hosted a Muslim - "Christian" dialogue behind closed doors, November 4 and 5.
We happily and eagerly awaited news from this meeting. Instead we received very disappointing reports
Twenty-four Muslim leaders and scholars led by Mustafa Ceric, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, engaged in three days of talks in the Vatican with the same number of Roman Catholic officials, led by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
While no official agenda was published, the theme of the talks is "Love of God, Love of Neighbor," and the sessions were expected to focus on two areas:
-- On the first day, the theological and spiritual foundations of Christian and Muslim teachings on love and charity, a topic that points toward broad areas of agreement and perhaps practical cooperation.
-- On the second day, human dignity and mutual respect, an area that may allow the Vatican to press its concerns about human rights and the treatment of minority Christian communities in Muslim countries, including Iraq.
Interfaith activists eagerly awaited reports and outcomes from this important conversation.
Instead offering a positive and constructive account of the conversation, paper after paper reports only the complaint of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue:
Too many Christian-Muslim dialogues, Vatican says,
"In my opinion, there are too many Christian-Muslim initiatives. Everybody's doing it," he told Reuters in an interview. "One doesn't know where this will go. That proves there is a great interest, but it sows a bit of confusion.
With so many new interfaith dialogues between different sets of Christian and Muslim leaders, there is a possibility for overlap and confusion, according to the Vatican's top official for interfaith efforts.
There is now so much interest in Christian-Muslim dialogue that it is getting hard to see where it is going, said Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, in an interview after last week's landmark conference between Catholic and Muslim leaders.
"There's a risk of overlapping," he told Reuters. "It may be the price to pay for all this interest that interreligious dialogue incites."
Incites? This writer decries such arrogance. While we in all ways seek to affirm all efforts for greater interreligious understanding, and seek at all times to retain a highly respectful attitude toward the extremely important center of the Roman Catholic community, it can only be said, that the habit to seek dominance and centrality, translating first from dogmatic imperialism, now toward wanting to own interfaith orthodoxy, is utterly contrary to the spirit necessary in the arena of seeking positive interfaith relations.
Posted by admin at November 10, 2008 02:50 PM
