Comments on: Cornell American stabs Back

By: John Lamont

John Lamont — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 05:27:00 +0000

I liked the blue skullcaps the Jews in the synagogue wore for the Pope’s visit; it was a nice touch. Benedict XVI’s visit to this synagogue and John Paul II’ visit to a mosque are not really on the same level, since Judaism and Islam are not the same kind of phenomena. Jews accept (part of) a real divine revelation, which they however misunderstand; Muslims accept as divinely revealed a text which is not. Muslims have a long history of forcibly converting others, especially Christians, whereas Jews have limited their efforts to avoiding their own conversions. This means that visiting a mosque has more potential for disedification than visiting a synagogue; especially this particular visit to a synagogue, clearly done by a German Pope in Germany to make a point about the evil of his countrymen’s eforts to massacre all the Jews. I don’t think a will to convert Jews to Christianity, which the Pope no doubt has, requires him to attempt to do so in every visit he makes to a synagogue. That would in fact be counterproductive in seeking conversions; which was not the case with St. Paul and St. Peter’s visits, which happened in very different historical circumstances. (Probably they just went to synagogue to pray, on many occasions, anyways.)

By: johnboy316

johnboy316 — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 03:51:00 +0000

EENS does not mean one cannot join with another religious group in an activity where shared values/beliefs are applied or discussed. It also does not rule out a discussion when values/beliefs are not shared. Ecumenism has little or nothing to do with the fact that salvation subsists in the Catholic Church, but rather how one effectively deals with other religions to promote unity.

By: Iacobus

Iacobus — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 14:38:00 +0000

Fixed.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 14:36:00 +0000

Please help. Link to original bulletin does not work

By: Tobias Petrus

Tobias Petrus — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 08:06:00 +0000

So, will Fr. Dan accuse Miss Durante of the arch-heresy of “Americanism”? :)

By: Tobias Petrus

Tobias Petrus — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 08:01:00 +0000

The author of the “Cornell American” article implies that Pope Benedict has broken with Pope John Paul’s ecumenical policies. She regards that Fair Pontiff’s visit to a mosque in Syria as disedifying (why didn’t she mention the Koran-kissing while she was at it?). Durante writes:

“However, as Christians who have been sent forth by Christ Himself to spread His love and salvation to the ends of the earth, we must applaud Benedict XVI for not following in the path of John Paul II in behavior more befitting a foreign diplomat than one who has been entrusted with leading the world towards eternal salvation in Christ.”

But Pope Benedict visited a synagogue in Germany in 2005. Jews deny the the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, etc., just as much as the Moslems do. They don’t even do the lip-service that Moslems give to Jesus as a “prophet.” I don’t recall Benedict calling upon the Jews in that room to convert, as I imagine St. Peter or St. Paul (the world’s most famous ex-yeshiva student, btw) would. See the following link:

http://www.ejpress.org/article/2357

The article includes the impression of one female Jewish (is “Jewess” anti-semitic?) attendant:

“Although his speech was generally politically correct, one point made me enthustiatic when he spoke about the mutual respect between Jews and Christians, which differs from the ancient church’s speech trying to convert people.”

So she went away from the meeting a little more confident that the evil acronym EENS needn’t bother her.

As did Durante, I liked ol’ Palaeologus’ words (how’s that for a bilingual pun?) on the subject of Islam, but the Pope pretty much denied them. So, even though much in the “American” article is commendable, Durante mischaracterizes Pope Benedict’s stand on ecumenism.