Who will go to them to proclaim Christ?

[rest_in_thee]

Yesterday was the Holy Father's second day in Angola, the second phase of his first papal visit to Africa. In his homily at the Sao Paulo church he spoke openly about the need to evangelize and to bring Christ directly to people who are so starving for it, and how we must not allow ourselves to fall prey to the relativism of today that says, "Oh

Comments

[underlankers]

One thing that I think a lot of people overlook is that just because a person believes firmly in the One Truth that is Christ does not mean that he or she is going to Verden the non-believers into submission.

I've found that good deeds do far more to testify to the spirit of Christ than good words. And too many people presume that with strong belief must follow violence, when that is not necessarily the case. There is much to learn from other religions, and there is much good to do to show Christ as He is, not as we want Him to be.

[rest_in_thee]

Eh, all religions have the same problems, because all religions involve humans. Most importantly I think it's more important for Christians to learn from Christ and from His Spirit, and let that education drive our efforts at evangelization.

[underlankers]

I agree. Too many Christians center themselves on the aspect of the religion as opposed to Christ, Who is Author and Center of it. That goes for as many Catholics as Protestants, IMHO.

[rest_in_thee]

yep

[goatoverlord42]

As someone who has studied indigenous faiths, and has a particular concern for the religious freedom of my own nation's indigenous people (who were denied their first Amendment Rights for over a century after the subjugation of the Plains people, and are still fighting for them in many places), I admit I am a little uneasy with this statement

[rest_in_thee]

Unfortunately the occult religions which he is encountering are quite often very harmful and lead to a great deal of the serious lack of education that plagues many parts of Africa to this day. It is the sort of uneducated superstition he is addressing that leads to such horrors as people raping virgins in order to be cured of AIDS

[goatoverlord42]

The practices he is condemning are of course most horrific- which I'm clearly in agreement with. What I have to question is how much he knows, or cares to know about the indigenous religions of Africa, including those which have little or nothing to do with these particular "witch doctors

[underlankers]

The attitude that settled urban peoples are superior to neighboring tribal or band peoples is one of those civilized universals nobody likes to mention. The Chinese, the Japanese, the African civilizations, the Triple Alliance, the Tawantinsuyu, and the Romans all shared that conceit. As it was....the cities didn't have anything to boast about until they could shut things down on nomadic raiders who could sack them, often with catastrophic results.

But civilized v. barbaroi is not a Western unique trait.

[goatoverlord42]

Thank you for posting these, by the way. I've been watching this trip with great interest, and its nice to have a place to talk about it

[rest_in_thee]

It seems that the perfect book of his for you to check out would be his book Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions. It's excellent, and gives a real insight into his theological, philosophical, and diplomatic vision of how to engage in dialogue while staying true to the Christian mission of evangelization.

You also might appreciate this homily, given at the Mass of the opening conclave where he was ultimately elected pope (thus delaying pastorlenny's goal for at least a few more years). This is his famous "dictatorship of relativism" homily. There are others, of course, but that book I think you will find particularly stimulating.