Tuesday, January 18, 2005
ECUMENICAL AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE
is the topic of Part II of an interview at Zenit linked by Spirit Daily, with theologian Ilaria Morali. From the interview:
A Muslim friend recently said to me: "We want to dialogue with true Catholics, not with half-way Catholics. From my point of view as a Muslim, a Catholic who rejects some fundamental aspect of his faith in order to dialogue would be like a bad Muslim who does not observe the Koran. One dialogues if one has the courage of one's own identity. How could we really know your faith if you deny, for example, the uniqueness of Christ?"
Exactly! But also difficult to discuss in interreligious dialogue, since all parties at the dialogue table consider themselves to be equal. Morali addresses this in the interview:
...dialogue between Christians and members of other religions can take place at two levels:
-- on political and social topics, for example when we are questioned on the role of religions in the peace process and humanization of the world;
-- in topics relating to religious doctrines, for example, the content of salvation according to the corresponding religious doctrines. In this connection, the declaration "Dominus Iesus" clarifies that, although on the level of persons, insofar as persons, those who form part of the dialogue have the same dignity, the same cannot be said on the level of doctrines. If we are Catholics, there is a necessary difference between the Christian message and the non-Christian message.
He adds further:
The fact that "Dominus Iesus" was badly received in some realms of the Catholic world should not surprise us. It was a physiological fact: there would have been no reason to write such a document if large sectors of present-day Catholicism had not lost sight of the beauty and fullness of the Christian message.
"Dominus Iesus" takes up again, in a certain sense, the same warning of Paul VI in "Ecclesiam Suam," when he put the faithful on guard against the temptation to lose the meaning and value of the gift received with baptism and the Catholic faith.
A lot of what I have posted in this blog has to do with that loss within Catholicism, particularly in the female religious communities where the embrace of ideas not Catholic has become epidemic.
Yesterday I blogged an article on the Pursuit of Happiness as a theme of Christian-Buddhist worship in which the dialogue session is to take place at the Unity Church under the auspicies of Father Freeman of The World Community for Christian Meditation.
The "About Us" webpage indicates that Richard Rohr, OFM will be hosting the John Main Seminar 2005. Presenters at the John Main Seminar which is held annually have included Rowan Williams, Bede Griffiths, Jean Vanier, William Johnston, the Dalai Lama and Mary McAleese.
I think most readers know that Rowan Williams is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Here is a little background on the rest of the players:
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM appears on the list of Dissenting Authors and Speakers at Our Lady's Warriors website. He is listed under the category "Theology Incompatible with the Catholic Faith", and the specific complaint is "Center for Action and Contemplation, focused on the occult Enneagram."
Here is a website dedicated to John Main's Christian Meditation. It links the World Community for Christian Meditation, so I assume they are working in unison. Nevertheless, the questions asked here are important.
Fr. Laurence Freeman OSB has appeared on a program at the Temple of Understanding, an interfaith center associated with URI.
Here is a picture of Fr. Bede Griffiths. Draw your own conclusions, especially in the light of the statements made on this website about the resurrection. Fr. Griffiths had his own ashram.
Jean Vanier is mentioned on the Celtic Worship website of the Banner of Truth Trust, a British organization with an office in the US. They make this comment about Vanier:
The psychic gifts which often seem to characterise people from the Hebridean islands, are here interpreted in terms of the last gifts inherited from the lost civilisation of Atlantis. These speculations of Steiner throw light on his interest in other places, such as Tintagel and Glastonbury, and help to account for some of the wilder and more esoteric developments of legend around these places in the last century or so.
Donald Meek goes on to point out that George MacLeod was attracted to some of Steiner's ideas about the spiritual dimension of humanity and the spiritual potential of the natural world. He points too to MacLeod's admiration for the work of the Steiner communities with handicapped people, an admiration which has been shared by some of those who have been influenced by the teaching of Jean Vanier in relation to mental and physical handicap. Is it perhaps possible that in the development of Steiner's vast and all-inclusive system, there were at least some genuine and indeed precious insights into some of the less obvious elements in the development of the human person? Insights which may yet prove worthy of inclusion in a Christian understanding of the nature of the human person? That at least is a question which deserves attention and where I and the author might well come to different conclusions.
Hardly a recommendation, though Vanier's work with the handicapped is laudible. How much did Steiner influence Vanier?
A review of William Johnston's book at this website could easily have been written by a Traditionalist. It talks about "ecumenical meditation", "democratic style of mysticism", "wisdom beyond letter and image", "universal age-old features", and the "tyranny of dogma", and a "mystical approach to scripture and theology". Johnston directs the Institute of Oriental Religions at Sophia University. This is syncretism similar to Rene Guenon and Frithjof Schuon's version of universalism.
Mary McAleese is President of the Republic of Ireland. She has written two articles in support of women priests according to the website of womenpriests.org.
The Dalai Lama is well known to be active in numerous occasions of interreligious dialogue around the world. He is a supporter of URI.
With an illustrious cast such as this, is it any wonder the seminar is scheduled to open at a Unity Church? Unity equals love, afterall. What could be better than that? If we love, will we tell someone they are following the wrong spiritual path? Of course not. We will simply affirm their calling. That is what Unity Churches do. Non-judgmental syncretism in the name of love and peace. Mysticism for the masses. Buddhist Christianity. The New Thought Movement in action. Mindful self-dominion. Scrap the dogma. Embrace the light.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
