More Mixed Messages From The Vatican
Christ’s message to his disciples is clear: the Church is to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 28: 18-19)
Yet, Pope Benedict XVI’s latest proclamation distances the Church from Christ’s unequivocal demand:
After meeting the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, and praying at the Western Wall on Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI arrived for a historic meeting with the chief rabbis at Heichal Shlomo, next to the capital's Great Synagogue, and agreed that the Catholic Church will cease all missionary activity among Jews.
(http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1242029507154&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer)
Catholics are taught that there is no salvation outside the Church and that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. In Dominus Iesus–a Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declaration approved by Pope John Paul II in 2000–we are even warned that “the Church's constant missionary proclamation is endangered today by relativistic theories which seek to justify religious pluralism, not only de facto but also de iure (or in principle).” (http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000806_dominus-iesus_en.html)
Dominus Iesus also explains that
with the coming of the Saviour Jesus Christ, God has willed that the Church founded by him be the instrument for the salvation of all humanity (cf. Acts 17:30-31).90 This truth of faith does not lessen the sincere respect which the Church has for the religions of the world, but at the same time, it rules out, in a radical way, that mentality of indifferentism “characterized by a religious relativism which leads to the belief that ‘one religion is as good as another'”.91 If it is true that the followers of other religions can receive divine grace, it is also certain that objectively speaking they are in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the Church, have the fullness of the means of salvation.92
Nevertheless, despite the above declaration and the 2,000 years of Church teachings supporting it, Pope Benedict XVI has decided that Jews are not required to become part of the Mystical Body of Christ.
The Pope’s decision is a disaster not only because it reveals the extent to which Christ’s Church has been infiltrated by the very relativism warned of in Dominus Iesus. But even worse it indicates that the pontiff is abdicating the very responsibility for which the Church exists: bringing salvation to all of humanity through Jesus Christ, the Redeemer: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:15-16)
How will our pontiff and other Church leaders justify to the Lord why they stopped preaching the words of salvation to our Jewish brethren?
Donald Tremblay
