Msg Base:  AREA 3  - ASK FATHER (AMDG)
  Msg No: 81.  Tue  9-22-92 13:14  (NO KILL)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Joseph Soule'
 Subject: Catholics, Moslems, Jews

JS|What is our relationship, as Catholics, with Jewish and Islamic believers?
  |We all claim the same God, but we certainly don't seem to claim each
  |other.
  |On a less serious note, how come Jesuits have time to answer all these
  |questions? The first question is serious. Thanks.
 
Dear Joseph,
 
The 2nd Vatican Council in its Declaration on the Relation of the
Church to Non-Christian Religions teaches:
 
"The Church urges her children to enter with prudence and charity
into discussion and collaboration with members of other religions.
Let Christians, while witnessing to their own faith and way of life,
acknowledge, preserve and encourage the spiritual and moral truths
found among non-Christians, also their social life and culture.
 
The Church has also a high regard for the Muslims.  They worship God,
who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the creator
of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to men.  They strive to
submit themselves without reserve to the hidden decrees of God, just
as Abraham submitted himself to God's plan, to whose faith Muslims
eagerly link their own.  Although not acknowledging him as God, they
venerate Jesus as a prophet, his virgin Mother they also honor, and
even at times devoutly invoke.  Further, they await the day of
judgment and the reward of God following the resurrection of the
dead.  For this reason they highly esteem an upright life and worship
God, especially by way of prayer, alms-deeds and fasting.
 
Over the centuries many quarrels and dissensions have arisen between
Christians and Muslims.  The sacred council now pleads with all to
forget the past, and urges that a sincere effort be made to achieve
mutual understanding; for the benefit of all men, let them together
preserve and promote peace, liberty, social justice and moral values.
 
Sounding the depths of the mystery which is the Church, this sacred
Council remembers the spiritual ties which link the people of the New
Covenant to the stock of Abraham, i.e., the Jews.
 
The Church of Christ acknowledges that in God's plan of salvation the
beginning of her faith and election is to be found in the patriarchs,
Moses and the prophets.  She professes that all Christ's faithful, who
as men of faith are sons of Abraham (cf. Gal. 3:7), are included in the
same patriarch's call and that the salvation of the Church is
mystically prefigured in the exodus of God's chosen people from the
land of bondage.  On this account the Church cannot forget that she received
the revelation of the Old Testament by the way of that people with
whom God in his inexpressible mercy established the ancient
covenant.  Nor can she forget that she draws nourishment from that good
olive tree onto which the wild olive branches of the Gentiles have
been grafted (cf. Rom. 11:17-24).  The Church believes that Christ who
is our peace has through his cross reconciled Jews and Gentiles and
made them one in himself (cf. Eph. 2:14-16).
 
Likewise, the Church keeps ever before her mind the words of the
apostle Paul about his kinsmen: `they are Israelites, and to them
belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law,
the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of
their race according to the flesh, is the Christ' (Rom. 9:4-5), the
son of the virgin Mary.  She is mindful, moreover, that the apostles,
the pillars on which the Church stands, are of Jewish descent, as are
many of those early disciples who proclaimed the Gospel of Christ to
the world.
 
As holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize God's
moment when it came (cf. Lk. 19:42).  Jews for the most part did not
accept the Gospel; on the contrary, many opposed the spreading of it
(cf. Rom. 11:28).  Even so, the apostle maintains that the Jews remain
very dear to God, for the sake of the patriarchs, since God does not
take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he made.  Together with
the prophets and that same apostle, the Church awaits the day, known
to God alone, when all peoples will call on God with one voice and
`serve him shoulder to shoulder' (Soph. 3:9; cf. Is. 66:23; Ps. 65:4; Rom.
11:11-32).
 
It is true that the Church is the new people of God, yet the Jews
should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed
from holy Scripture.  Consequently, all must take care, lest in
catechizing or in preaching the Word of God, they teach anything
which is not in accord with the truth of the Gospel message or the
spirit of Christ.
 
Indeed, the Church reproves every form of persecution against
whomsoever it may be directed.  Remembering, then, her common heritage
with the Jews and moved not by any political consideration, but
solely by the religious motivation of Christian charity, she deplores
all hatreds, persecutions, displays of antisemitism leveled at any
time or from any source against the Jews.
 
The Church always held and continues to hold that Christ out of
infinite love freely underwent suffering and death because of the
sins of all men, so that all might attain salvation.  It is the duty
of the Church, therefore, in her preaching to proclaim the cross of
Christ as the sign of God's universal love and the source of all
grace.
 
We cannot truly pray to God the Father of all if we treat any people
in other than brotherly fashion, for all men are created in God's
image.  Man's relation to God the Father and man's relation to his
fellow-men are so dependent on each other that the Scripture says `he
who does not love, does not know God' (1 Jn. 4:8).
 
There is no basis therefore, either in theory or in practice for any
discrimination between individual and individual, or between people
and people arising either from human dignity or from the rights which
flow from it.
 
Therefore, the Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any
discrimination against people or any harassment of them on the basis
of their race, color, condition in life or religion.  Accordingly,
following the footsteps of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, the
sacred Council earnestly begs the Christian faithful to `conduct
themselves well among the Gentiles' (1 Pet. 2:12) and if possible, as
far as depends on them, to be at peace with all men (cf. Rom. 12:18)
and in that way to be true sons of the Father who is in heaven (cf.
Mt. 5:45)."
 
        We priests have time to answer your questions because you
folks out there all tithe to support us, so we don't have to work for
a living!
 
                                Sincerely in Christ,
 
 
                                        Father Mateo