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Careful, Catholics and Muslims! We Quake!
The Question: Pope Benedict's recent baptism of a well-known Italian Muslim has prompted criticism in much of the Islamic world. Has Benedict done enough to build bridges to Islam?
Every move Pope Benedict will make on his United States visit and everything he says will be observed, recorded, analyzed, and parsed--with good reasons. While his main mission is not to deal with Catholic-Muslim relations, anything he says on that front will draw most attention--even more than what he says on well-worn but still relevant sexual issues. By now most Catholics and their neighbors are familiar with and have fairly set opinions on birth control, abortion, and the like. How Catholics and Muslims, communities disproportionate in size in the United States, but not in the world, choose to relate will have consequences in a world threatened by aggressions, war, and terrorism and in a world where many recognize the need for reconciliation across the boundaries of faiths.
First, a word about size. Note that four times in the previous paragraph I used the word "Catholic" where ordinarily "Christian" would have been in place. This reflects a terminological choice by the Vatican, which announced that Islam's growth has made Catholicism the second largest religion in the world. Hitherto, most demographers, atlas-makers, statisticians, and scholars of religion spoke of the Christian population, which includes Orthodox, Protestants, Pentecostals, and others, whose hundred millions, when included with Catholics, keep Christianity Number One among religions.
Why the accounting and naming choice? Some Vatican moves have been newly excluding; the Pope has declared that all the non-Roman-Catholic churches (save Orthodoxy, which gets a qualified churchly endorsement) can't even be thought of as churches. They are "ecclesial communities," to one of which I belong. I now, when reciting the creed, adapt and level things out by thinking, no matter what I am saying, that "I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic set of ecclesial communities." Do non-Catholics not count, or count for less? Again, why the accounting and naming choice? Is it to show the Christian community is smaller than formerly thought, and that Muslim growth is to be feared, more than it would be if it remained Number Two?
After that disquisition on names and size, we are left with an awareness that two huge, huge communities and organizations, as they jostle, cause quakes among bystanders. That is why each refinement of Islamic-Catholic relations concerns us all. And the refinements and interactions have their ups and downs. Islam has no central authority--to speak of "the Muslim community," as I have, is a bit misleading. Imams, ayatollahs, scholars, mystics, who worship Allah are not centrally organized, and cannot speak with one voice as official Catholicism can.
So when the Pope, in his role as a German professor, referred to a centuries-old encounter in which Islam, all the way back to Muhammad, was seen as designed to kill by prospering through use of the sword, he had to back off, and did, clarifying his views, to the satisfaction of many or most Muslims who are open to positive interactions with Catholics and others. Muslim leaders have made positive moves, in the aftermath, to stimulate dialogue designed to produce understanding and better terms, and the Pope has also engaged in some "watch your language" adjustments.
Then new quaking followed, when he baptized journalist Magdi Allam at Easter Vigil. Allam could not have picked a worse moment--though better for him, as a professional stirrer-up--to be part of such a public recognition of Islamic apostasy and Catholic conversion. Or, maybe, the Pope could not have picked a worse public figure than Allam at this moment for whom to provide publicity. Like many an "ex-"--think ex-Mormon, ex-Baptist, etc.--he spends great energy attacking his past ties, and provides incendiary stories of Muslim horrors. He did not go quietly from one religion to another. So Muslims of many stripes, most of whom would have chafed but not many of whom would have "lost it," began to lose it.
Count on Pope Benedict to respond not with inflammatory moves and language but to join the Vatican officials who make clear the obvious, but easily overlooked, namely that Allam does NOT speak for Catholics, but only has the right to personal opinions. So, despite this second shaking moment, "dialogue" will go on, and the Pope will be a part of it, overall, though not in day to day participation.
Many deride the very idea of "dialogue" and "inter-faith" relations, which do not make the news the way suicide bombing, antagonism over proselytism, and all-but-war, as in Christian-Muslim life-taking conflict in Nigeria do. Dialogue is too polite, too remote from the battle scenes, too cautious to satisfy hard-liner Catholics, Muslims, or bystanders. Yet conversation, dialogue, and joint efforts are desperately needed. Whatever the occasional setbacks, recognize that the Pope, who seeks sharper definitions of Catholicism and is not sentimental about how "we all believe the same thing in different ways" is aware of the high stakes and will tread carefully in those little red slippers that television enjoys so much, glimpses of which inspire hope, while explosives inspired by religious conflict threaten us all.
By
Martin Marty
|
April 9, 2008; 8:15 AM ET
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Posted by: Miguel Zambrano | April 10, 2008 11:51 PM
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Garyd:
You can say with certainty that a state of war exists between all religions that missionary and all others that do likewise for the simple reason their goals are to take over the world and become the only religion/government. Nazis are a good example of a non-missionary type religion. So you can leave the missionary part out in all the cases so far. Someone wrote a book I've never read, "All Gods are Gods of War" that pretty much sums things up with the title alone.
Islam is a "copycat" religion. Muhammad, (probably a fictional person) "met God, (God's representative) too" just like Moses. Explain why one would copycat anything and you got the answer to what religion is all about which is to make the founder of the religion the most important person that ever lived Joseph Smith, John Wesley, Martin Luther, Constantine the great, Saul become Paul...
Posted by: BGone | April 10, 2008 5:22 PM
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Garyd:
I find your comment to be vulgar and insulting. What wrong has a goat ever done to you?
Posted by: Baphomet | April 10, 2008 5:08 PM
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Garyd:
I find your comment to be vulgar and inflsulting. What wrong has a goat ever done to you?
Posted by: Baphomet | April 10, 2008 5:07 PM
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TO MARTIN MARTY:
You wrote, "Then new quaking followed, when he baptized journalist Magdi Allam at Easter Vigil. Allam could not have picked a worse moment", actually Allam did not pick the moment, in the Catholic Church under normal circumstances all adult converts are received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil all around the world as far as I know, at least that is how it usually works in the United States, as far as I know.
Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.
Posted by: Thomas Baum | April 9, 2008 6:23 PM
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I am amazed by how many professors of religion, etc., entirely misunderstand statements.
Why is Prof. Marty shocked to hear that he and the Pope have different understandings of what a "church" is? That's part of what makes their religions different, right? Prof. Marty's definition is more inclusive than the Pope's because his church has ventured, over the course of centuries, further and further afield from the Pope's.
Posted by: Ryan Haber | April 9, 2008 4:14 PM
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Are there so many Christians and Muslims that the rest of the world must accept their power, the power of their leaders? Is Tibet a big place, a lot of people? They seem to be able to make a lot of noise everywhere except Beijing.
Why do governments, not all but many including, (led by) the US government fear the possible collapse of world religions? (See official documents from declassified UFO files.)
You and other non Catholics must not believe the Bible is God's word. Need I quote from it to show you where the pope gets his authority to condemn all non Catholics to hell? Did Jesus establish a church or an unlimited number of churches? Heretics shall smolder away for all eternity in hell.
Lucifer just loves the chaos. "Go to your churches, temples, synagogues, mosques and pray" to Lucifer. Be sure to call him God. Lucifer dances with glee when the little children parrot, "One nation under God." Lucifer loves being called God real good but what about God?
Was that God in the burning bush? All things hinge on that being God. The future of your immortal soul hangs on that one scene. Better be sure. But you have a mind closed by faith, no ears left with which to listen.
Those who already know can't be taught. Those who cannot be taught are retarded. A closed mind is Lucifer's playground. World religion are in those minds closed by religion selling tickets to hell like hell was Disneyland.
Good luck making peace with yourselves.
Posted by: BGone | April 9, 2008 3:15 PM
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These nit picking coments from someone as respected as Martin Marty only serve to keep our eyes from the real purpose of Christian belief.I could cae less(as a Catholic ) who the Pope accepts into the faith.I am happy to see a controversial person who comes to Christiam belief.I do not go to church to show adoration to the Pope but to celebrate the Salvation brought to me by Jesus Christ in his person as the Son of God.
Posted by: GONFRMTN | April 9, 2008 2:17 PM
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One could truthfully state that Roman Catholicism and Islam have existed in a state of War ever since they first became aware of each others' existence.
Neither has over much to recommend it in the grand scheme of things and when Christ returns the overwhelming Majority of both Groups will find themselves standing with the Goats for what little good they have done they did to glorify themselves rather than God.
Posted by: Garyd | April 9, 2008 11:22 AM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
A lot of this dialogue by the Pope doesn't have to do with the US or even the war on terror, but with the fleeing of Christians from a half dozen Middle Eastern countries where they have lived for millenum.
Over one million Christian OFW in Saudi can not worship freely.