I thought it was a joke or exaggeration, but when I visited the website for the Catholic diocese of Hallam in the UK under Bishop Ralph Hesket I was shocked to see that charges of religious relativism or indifferentism might have merit. As part of a national interfaith outreach, Christian believers were encouraged to visit and honor pagan shrines. I fail to fathom how this is either genuine dialogue or true ecumenism. Despite the directions given, Catholics should not bow to pagan images or eat the food that has been offered to idols. Christians were persecuted and even martyred in the early days of the faith for refusing such acts that compromised the true faith and pampered superstition.
Indeed, the early apologists argued that despite the generosity of the pagans toward the poor, Christians should not eat the food of pagan sacrifices because the pagan deities were actually demons.
Moses was commanded to remove his sandals when he encountered God in the burning bush. But what we have here is an image of Buddha and a pagan shrine. While these locations may hold anthropological interest for learned Christians, most would best avoid such places. As Christians we may honor persons and give deference to religious liberty that also protects our rights in a multicultural society, but we should not underestimate the general ignorance and tottering faith of many Christians. Already many are adopting Eastern ideas about the yin and yang of the Tao, the transmigration of the souls, the spirituality associated with yoga, and a pantheistic view of creation.
The removal of shoes may be a small concession but the added flower presentation and material sacrifice of money, mimics or parallels the offertory at Mass. Christ and the Church he instituted is the one way that God has established for our salvation. No one comes to the Father apart from Jesus Christ. A confession of faith can be made both in words and with gestures. We must be wary of making a wholesale compromise of the truth. Buddhism is incompatible with the Christian kerygma. Pope John Paul II was criticized for his assessment in CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE.
Do we draw near to God in this way? This is not mentioned in the “enlightenment” conveyed by Buddha. Buddhism is in large measure an “atheistic” system. We do not free ourselves from evil through the good which comes from God; we liberate ourselves only through detachment from the world, which is bad. The fullness of such a detachment is not union with God, but what is called nirvana, a state of perfect indifference with regard to the world. To save oneself means, above all, to free oneself from evil by becoming indifferent to the world, which is the source of evil. This is the culmination of the spiritual process.
While some might note Buddhism as more a philosophy of negation than a deistic religion, the diocesan guidelines also threaten to taint the faith of believers under an effort to show respect to the adherents of Hinduism.
The early Christians were put to death for refusing to throw the smallest fleck of incense into the fire for an idol of Rome and its emperor. Just as we would not expect Hindus to bend the knee and cross themselves in our churches; neither should Hindu shrines be honored by Christians with bowing before the idols of false deities. This act impugns the heroic sacrifices of the early martyrs. Such concession signifies a cowardice to accusations of intolerance where there should be a brave act of witness that promotes the missionary spirit within the scope of both understanding and charity.
Christians need to respect the Eastern effort to discern truth while not abandoning our own rich inheritance. The missionary effort, going back to the days of St. Francis Xavier, had many successes. But we must admit that the faith also suffered from the stigma of being Western and foreign. Right or wrong, the saint regarded all the Hindus as devil worshipers. This is part of our historical faith inheritance. Doors were closed where the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes might have opened them. There is said to be an evolution in Hinduism toward monotheism; but this truth is already realized in Christianity. We must be careful that weak Christians do not embrace Eastern religion due to an attraction to the strange or exotic.
Pope Paul VI stated in NOSTRA AETATE the following:
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.
We would not deny any elements that are true in such religions, but there are also wrong turns and false understandings (error). All salvation truth subsists in the Catholic Church. We do not have to look elsewhere. People who are largely ignorant of their own rich Christian faith inheritance might be lost if we are passive to their involvement in other religions.
Catholics should bow or genuflect before the Christian altar, or the Crucifix or the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle but NOT before the image of alien gods. Definitely they should not eat the food given to them, demons or not.
1 Corinthians 10:18-22 – Look at Israel according to the flesh; are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? So what am I saying? That meat sacrificed to idols is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No, I mean that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to become participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons. Or are we provoking the Lord to jealous anger? Are we stronger than he?
At a time when exorcisms are on the rise, this is the height of idiocy. We can respect persons and work together for a more civil and caring society; however, we should not do so at the cost of our immortal souls. Ignorance of the truth may save some from the full weight of judgment. However, our Catholic and Christian community will be judged according to our understanding and fidelity to the revelation of Christ that is passed down to us in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
Catholics and other Christians might visit such sites for educational purposes. They should do nothing that suggests worship. Pope John Paul II argued that the Allah of the Muslims is the same Father God of the Christians. This may be, but there remains much that divides us, particularly the role of Jesus as Lord and Redeemer. The Pope states:
Some of the most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Koran, but He is ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us. Islam is not a religion of redemption. There is no room for the Cross and the Resurrection. Jesus is mentioned, but only as a prophet who prepares for the last prophet, Muhammad. There is also mention of Mary, His Virgin Mother, but the tragedy of redemption is completely absent. For this reason not only the theology but also the anthropology of Islam is very distant from Christianity.
A gesture for peace is also fine, as long as we do nothing to undermine or apologize for our identity as Christians. We should also insist that the Islamic community become more pro-active against discrimination and violence against Christians throughout the world. Otherwise, gestures of human respect (not divine worship) become empty.
While we can respect others, we should not be giving directions to Christian believers on how to commit idolatry.
The Sikh religion is inherently pantheistic. We believe that God maintains creation but he cannot be identified with it. While its tenets include reincarnation and various Hindu teachings; it is monotheistic, rejects the caste system and the use of idols. It also espouses a syncretism where it tries to unite various beliefs from disjointed sources. Christianity might adopt elements of culture and even the symbols of others (as it did in the Roman and Greek world) but the content is always that of the Gospel. The blunt matter is that, no matter how interesting, this still constitutes a false religion for Catholics. Ours is a jealous God. He will not share us with others.
While certain traditionalists would attack overtures toward the Jews, we must always acknowledge that Judaism is a true, albeit natural religion. While they have yet to embrace the revelation of the Trinity, the Jewish faith was called into existence by Almighty God. Pope John Paul II insisted:
The New Covenant serves to fulfill all that is rooted in the vocation of Abraham, in God’s covenant with Israel at Sinai, and in the whole rich heritage of the inspired Prophets who, hundreds of years before that fulfillment, pointed in the Sacred Scriptures to the One whom God would send in the “fullness of time” (cf. Gal 4:4).
We have a genuine historical and faith relationship with the Jews that we do not share with other religions. Interfaith efforts should not be so diffusive that we lose sight of this fact. The Jews are our elder brothers and sisters in faith. Their story is part of our story. The truths of the faith preserved and passed down by the Hebrews made possible the coming of Christ and his kingdom. While we believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah and the fulfillment of the covenant, God has not forsaken his first people. God keeps his promises. There are NOT two covenants. Both Pope Benedict XVI and the late Cardinal-priest Dulles clarified that there is ONLY one covenant. The covenant of old now embraces (in Jesus Christ) both the first and the new People of God. We pray and hope that those first called will one day come to a full awareness of the fulfillment in Christ.
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