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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…”
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