Friday, November 11, 2005
BENEDICT SAYS "DON'T WATER DOWN THE TEACHING"
In an article at LifeSite sent in by a reader, Pope Benedict says we must not water down Catholic teaching for the false notion that it will keep people in the Church, because Catholic teaching presented incompletely leads to contradictions which fail to convince.
He goes on to pinpoint the hard questions of the present day concerning IVF and contraception, noting they have opened the doorway to acceptance of stem cell research, abortion and homosexuality.
With such a statement of commitment to the Tradition, it will be interesting to see how he proceeds with interreligious dialogue. The ideal is that he can find a convincing alternative to those who promote peace by stirring all of the world's religions into a single religious soup. A worldwide religion makes Christ just another deity. Pope Benedict will have to provide another way of looking at dialogue that does not compromise the authenticity of Jesus Christ as Savior of the world. It's a tall order given the worldwide trend to use meditation/contemplation as promoted by Catholic monks to facilitate this syncretism in the name of peace. To waffle here will be to give the world the impression that we have turned away from Christ. This statement from Benedict 16 would seem to indicate that he will not tolerate spreading such a compromise.
