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Dismay, Disdain Over Vatican Document
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- VATICAN CITY (Reuters)
- Religious leaders and theologians reacted with dismay and disdain Wednesday
to a Vatican document which rejected the concept that other religions could
be considered equal to Roman Catholicism.
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- The controversial document, issued Tuesday by the Vatican's
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stunned many, worried others
and left a number indifferent.
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- But there was general concern that the complex theological
document could hurt decades of inter-religious dialogue that has made great
strides since the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council.
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- The bitterness appeared to be felt most by other Christian
religions, which the document implied were second-rate because of "defects,"
including their refusal to recognize papal primacy.
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- The Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the
world's 70 million Anglicans, rejected the Vatican's contention as unacceptable,
saying it appeared to question efforts to cement closer ties among various
branches of Christianity.
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- "The idea that Anglican and other churches are not
'proper churches' seems to question the considerable ecumenical gains we
have made," Archbishop George Carey said in a statement.
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- "The Church of England, and the world-wide Anglican
Communion, does not for one moment accept that its orders of ministry and
Eucharist are deficient in any way. It believes itself to be a part of
the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church of Christ," said Carey.
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- DISMAY AMONG PROTESTANTS
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- There was also ecumenical dismay in Germany, home of
Martin Luther's Reformation, where evangelical churches felt slighted.
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- "The declaration suggests that the Catholic and
the Protestant church are not on equal terms with each other," Manfred
Kock, chairman of the council of the Evangelical Church of Germany, told
ZDF television.
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- "This will not help discussions between the two
churches," he said of inter-religious dialogue in Germany.
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- The document repeated Catholic Church teachings that
non-Christians were in a "gravely deficient situation" regarding
salvation and that other Christian churches had "defects."
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- It said the clarification and restatement of the official
Catholic position was necessary to contest "relativistic theories
which seek to justify religious pluralism" as a principle rather than
a de facto practice.
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- It said only the revelation of Jesus Christ was "definitive
and complete" and that Christian revelation could not be seen as complementary
to that found in other religions.
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- Dissident Swiss theologian Hans Kung, who has been disciplined
by the Vatican in the past, said the document was reactionary.
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- "MEDIEVAL BACKWARDNESS AND VATICAN MEGALOMANIA"
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- "It's a mixture of medieval backwardness and Vatican
megalomania," he was quoted as saying by an Italian news agency.
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- Kung, who had his license to teach in a Catholic University
withdrawn by the Vatican cardinal who wrote Tuesday's document, said it
was hypocritical to "continually talk about dialogue while not talking
about this colossal pretence of absolutism."
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- Walking a theological tightrope, the document said the
"Church of Christ" was present in other Christian Churches.
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- But, in the Vatican's view, it subsists fully in the
Roman Catholic Church because the Pope is the successor to St Peter, whom
Christ named as his first vicar on Earth.
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- The sting was also felt by non-Christians, whom the document
said were disadvantaged regarding salvation because Christ was the Son
of God.
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- "This has fundamentalist overtones," said Tullia
Zevi, director of inter-cultural and inter-religious relations for the
European Jewish Congress. "It saddens and worries us," she said.
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- Rabbi David Rosen, head of the Jerusalem office of the
Anti-Defamation League, said the position was not surprising.
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- But he added: "Those of us...pluralistic in our
theological approach, are a little disappointed that nothing is moving
in terms of the present theological position of the Vatican."
- Comment
- Name witheld by request (& fear of the inquisition!)
9-10-00
There's only one suitable comment for this new abomination out of Rome,
and that is the Word of God in prophecy:
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- "Now the Holy Spirit expressly warns, that in the
future some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines written by demons; Men who will speak their lies in hypocrisy
as if their conscience had been seared with a hot iron; They will forbid
marriage, and command abstinence from certain foods, both of which God
created to be received with thanks by those who believe and know the truth.
For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it
is received with thanks, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
If you put the believers in remembrance of these things, you will be a
good minister of Jesus Christ, fully nourished in the words of faith and
good doctrine, to which you have attained." - The Apostle Paul to
Timothy, 1 Timothy 4 1-6.
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