Pope Benedict’s fearful words

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has made few contributions to the life of the Church since his retirement, preferring instead to “watch and pray.”

Nov 11, 2014

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has made few contributions to the life of the Church since his retirement, preferring instead to “watch and pray.” But, he has just issued one lengthy reflection on the dangers of relativism which because of its rarity as well as its revisiting of old themes, deserves more attention than it has attracted so far.

Relativism was one of the traps he warned the Church to avoid, in his address to the cardinals prior to the conclave that elected him. It was a key theme of the document, Dominus Iesus, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith when he was its prefect in 2000, which has since become somewhat notorious for the bluntness of its language. Relativism was also one reason for the CDF’s censoring of the major work by the great Jesuit theologian, Jacques Dupuis, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism. It cannot be assumed that his returning to the subject now is in any sense a criticism of Pope Francis, though some may want to make use of it that way. But, it does suggest Benedict thinks the danger is still acute.

The essence of his message, read for him at an event in his honour at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, was that efforts to foster better relations between different faiths, in order to promote peace, must not be at the expense of truth. What was commonly being asked, he said, was, “Would it not be more appropriate for the religions to encounter each other in dialogue and serve together the cause of peace in the world? The counter-question is: can dialogue replace mission?” Behind this lay the assumption, lethal to the Christian faith, that different religions were variations of a single and identical reality — “that ‘religion’ is a common genre that takes on different forms, according to the different cultures but nonetheless expresses the same reality.”

Benedict’s solution is not to reject other faiths as having nothing that is true or beautiful about them, but to see them as religions which are, in a sense, “in waiting.” And though they do not yet recognise it, what they are waiting for is an encounter with Christ, which will bring them to their true fulfilment.

Though that may not sound very Franciscan, Benedict shapes his remarks so as to bring him alongside, rather than opposed to, Pope Francis. The present Pope has already made significant gestures towards other faiths, including his insistence on having a Jewish and a Muslim companion with him, on his visit earlier this year to the Holy Land. Not least in his exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis’ message is of the joy that Christians know from their relationship with Christ. Benedict is on the same page: “We proclaim Jesus Christ, not in order to procure as many members as possible for our community, and much less for the sake of power. We speak of him because we feel the need to transmit the joy that has been given to us.” But whereas Benedict insists relativism is one of the greatest threats that the Catholic faith has to face, Francis says very little about it. Actions inspired by a sense of joy, he clearly thinks, speak louder than fearful words. -- The Tablet

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