PANTHER : REVELATION AND RELIGIOUS SUPREMACISM

A supposedly omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent deity failed to hop nimbly about the planet delivering precisely the same message to all countries and the question of whether there is any God at all, corporeal or ethereal, distant or personal, is distinct from Yahweh-Allah-Jehovah having shown himself to be a confused, inarticulate incompetent and thus a sower of discord and confusion. All God had to do was to be clear and this apparently was beyond him.

The real problem facing so-called revelation is not time but place. The historical Moses is thought to have lived in around 1400 BC. In the 1500 years or so between him and Paul, a multiplicity of world-shaping events and perspectives on being human occurred elsewhere on the planet, the whole of Ancient Greece and with it the birth of democracy, most of Classical Rome, the Upanishads, Confucius, Zoroastrianism, Lao-Tzu, none of which is significant, other than as error or sin or at best feeble gropings for troof.

Orthodoxy collapses not on the sniper fire of a Voltaire or a Lenin, but on the reality of the surrounding world and what the orthodox deride as 'pick 'n' mix' religion is a natural consequence of people being able to read and free to choose what they read..

To neither of these notions was the Catholic Church a friend:
From which totally false idea of social government they do not fear to foster that erroneous opinion, most fatal in its effects on the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, called by Our Predecessor, Gregory XVI, an "insanity,"2 viz., that "liberty of conscience and worship is each man's personal right, which ought to be legally proclaimed and asserted in every rightly constituted society; and that a right resides in the citizens to an absolute liberty, which should be restrained by no authority whether ecclesiastical or civil, whereby they may be able openly and publicly to manifest and declare any of their ideas whatever, either by word of mouth, by the press, or in any other way."

Libertas: Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII in 1888

Religion, of its essence, is wonderfully helpful to the State. For, since it derives the prime origin of all power directly from God Himself, with grave authority it charges rulers to be mindful of their duty, to govern without injustice or severity, to rule their people kindly and with almost paternal charity; it admonishes subjects to be obedient to lawful authority, as to the ministers of God; and it binds them to their rulers, not merely by obedience, but by reverence and affection, forbidding all seditious and venturesome enterprises calculated to disturb public order and tranquillity.

Quanta Cura, Encyclical of Pope Piux IX, December 8, 1864

Islam's claim to be top banana is part of the headlines. That the Roman Catholic Church continues to maintain it alone offers the path to salvation is less publicized. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus: outside the Church there is no salvation. That was Ratzinger's view when as Grand Inquisitor he censured erring priests and there is no reason to suppose it is not his view now.

NOTIFICATION on the book Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism (Orbis Books: Maryknoll, New York 1997) by Father JACQUES DUPUIS, S.J.

NOTIFICATION CONCERNING THE WRITINGS OF FATHER ANTHONY DE MELLO, SJ

The notification lauds Dupuis for raising new questions and for his "attempt to remain within the limit of orthodoxy." Nevertheless, it cites "notable ambiguities or difficulties" in the book, and lists several points that theologians must uphold. Those points are:

• Jesus Christ is the "sole and universal mediator of salvation for all humanity";
  
• The revelation offered in Jesus offers everything necessary for salvation and has no need of completion by other religions;
  
• Elements of truth in other religions derive from Jesus;
  
• The Word of God and the Holy Spirit are not agents of salvation apart from Jesus Christ;
  
• Different religions are not ways of salvation complementary to the Catholic church;
  
• Followers of other religions are called to be part of the Catholic church;
  
• In themselves, other religions are not means of salvation because they "contain omissions, insufficiencies and errors."