Online text: “Fostering Respect and Mutual Understanding between the Religions”, by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales

See this online text:

• Meeting God in Friend & Stranger: Fostering Respect and Mutual Understanding between the Religions: A Teaching Document of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (London: Catholic Truth Society, 2010). Available in PDF format (through this page) of the Catholic Church in England and Wales; and on this page of Catholic Social Teaching (linked to from the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations).

On the Feast of St. Abraham of Kidunaja (or Kidunja/Kidunaia); and in belated commemoration of the promulgation of the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions “Nostra Aetate” at the Second Vatican Council (28 October 1965). For other legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject). From the text:

“Interreligious dialogue… as the Catholic Church understands it, includes simply living as good neighbours with those of other religions, or working together in matters of common concern, such as in issues of justice, peace, the integrity of creation and so forth. It includes a willingness, according to circumstances, to try to understand better the religion of one’s neighbours, and to experience something of their religious life and culture…

“In all its teaching the Catholic Church keeps a careful balance between insisting that God truly wills the eternal salvation of all people, and insisting with equal force that Christ is the one and only means and mediator of this salvation. The Church also keeps a balance between recognising what is true and holy in other religions, and yet insisting on the importance of an explicit faith in Christ and membership of the Church through Baptism. Thus the promotion of dialogue has not diminished the necessity of proclaiming the Gospel and calling those who do not believe in Christ to conversion while fully respecting the liberty of each person…

“Our faith in Christ gives us the assurance that whatever is true and holy in other religions is not an alternative to the Gospel, but a preparation for it. The aspirations of humanity, and the answers offered by the various religious traditions, all have their fulfilment in Jesus Christ. It is therefore essential for the Church, in faithfulness to the Gospel, to balance the affirmative statements about other religions with an honest confession of what our faith sees as lacking (that is, needing to be completed) in those religions…

“This assertion that Christ is the only Saviour does not imply the superiority of individual Christians over everyone else. What Christians have received is totally unmerited on their part. It is an assertion rather of the bountiful goodness of God, and of the awesome responsibility Christians have of living up to what they have received, of being humbly thankful for it, and of being ever ready to share it with others…”

Online text: “Life is Beautiful: The Theological Aesthetic Argument for Life”, by Matthew Lewis Sutton

See this online text:

• “Life is Beautiful: The Theological Aesthetic Argument for Life”, by Matthew Lewis Sutton, Life and Learning: Proceedings of the Eighteenth University Faculty for Life Conference at Marquette University, vol. XVIII (edited by Joseph W. Koterski, S.J.), pp. 309-322 (2008). The article and the entire volume are available in PDF format (through this page) at University Faculty for Life.

On the Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist. For other legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject). Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints!

Online text: “The Pastoral Ministry of Bishops”, by the Congregation for Bishops

See this online text:

• Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops “Apostolorum Successores”, by the Congregation for Bishops, February 22, 2004. May be read online at the Holy See.
  • See also the commentary “The 2004 Directory on the Ministry of Bishops: Reflections on Episcopal Governance in a Time of Crisis”, by Professor Thomas J. Green, 41st Annual Convention CCLS (2006), on this page of the Canadian Canon Law Society.

On the Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite. For other legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject). Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints!

Online ebook: “Apologia Pro Vita Sua”, by Cardinal Newman

See this online ebook:

• Apologia Pro Vita Sua, by Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman

The 1864 edition, entitled Apologia Pro Vita Sua; Being a Reply to a Pamphlet Entitled “What, then, does Dr. Newman mean?”, is available in various formats at Open Library and Internet Archive (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1864), as well as at Project Gutenberg and Many Books.net (London: J. M. Dent & Sons; New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.). An incompletely proofread copy based on this edition may be read online at the Modern History Sourcebook.

The 1865 edition or later variants thereof, entitled Apologia Pro Vita Sua; Being a History of His Religious Opinions, may be read online (here) at Newman Reader (London, New York, Bombay, and Calcutta: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1908), and is available in various formats at Internet Archive and Open Library (London: Longmans, Green, 1895), at Many Books.net (London, New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1990), at Internet Archive and Open Library (London, New York: Longmans, Green, 1888), and at  Internet Archive and Open Library (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1882).

An MP3 audiobook of the 1865 edition is available at Libri Vox.

Note that the 1865 edition and its post-1865 variants are chiefly distinguished by the removal of express mentions of Charles Kingsley (whose attack on Cardinal Newman was tellingly refuted with the Apologia), which required the renumbering of chapters and the writing of new prefatory material; whereas the 1864 edition had recounted in length the Kingsley-Newman exchange. The 1865 preface explained the differences in more detail. Please see Modern History Sourcebook for a useful summary of the different editions.

The combined or Oxford edition, entitled Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua, The Two Versions of 1864 & 1865; Preceded by Newman’s and Kingsley’s Pamphlets, with an Introduction by Wilfrid Ward (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, New York, Toronto, Melbourne, Bombay: Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1913), may be read online (here) at Newman Reader, and is available in various formats at Internet Archive and Open Library, with a second copy at Internet Archive and Open Library.

On the Memorial of Blessed John Henry Newman (Cardinal Newman). Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints!