Professor Baums’s talk
focused on the salutory liberalizing moments of the Catholic Church in the
twentieth century which embraced more tolerant, open attitudes.
He mentioned the Ten
Points of Seelisberg document:
He also mentioned the Oecumenical movement and the
Nostra Aetate inter-religious dialogue document from the Second Vatican Council
of 1965, which he participated in:
DECLARATION
ON THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO
NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS
NOSTRA AETATE
PROCLAIMED BY HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI ON OCTOBER 28, 1965
NOSTRA AETATE
PROCLAIMED BY HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI ON OCTOBER 28, 1965
1. In our time, when
day by day mankind is being drawn closer together, and the ties between
different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church examines more closely her
relationship to non-Christian religions. In her task of promoting unity and
love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this
declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.
2. Religions, however,
that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same
questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language. Thus
in Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an
inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry.
They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition either through
ascetical practices or profound meditation or a flight to God with love and
trust. Again, Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical
insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a
devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect
liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme
illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the
restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing
"ways," comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The
Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.
The Church, therefore,
exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of
other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the
Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things,
spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these
men.
3. The Church regards
with esteem also the Moslems.
4. As the sacred synod
searches into the mystery of the Church, it remembers the bond that spiritually
ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock.
5. We cannot truly call on God, the Father of all, if we refuse to treat in
a brotherly way any man, created as he is in the image of God. Man's relation
to God the Father and his relation to men his brothers are so linked together
that Scripture says: "He who does not love does not know God" (1 John
4:8).
No foundation therefore remains for any theory or practice that leads to
discrimination between man and man or people and people, so far as their human
dignity and the rights flowing from it are concerned.
The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any
discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race, color,
condition of life, or religion. On the contrary, following in the footsteps of
the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, this sacred synod ardently implores the
Christian faithful to "maintain good fellowship among the nations" (1
Peter 2:12), and, if possible, to live for their part in peace with all
men,(14) so that they may truly be sons of the Father who is in heaven.(15)
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