01 March 2007

Cardinal: Antichrist tempts Christians to place dialogue above Jesus

An article at CNS says:


Christians tempted to set aside their belief in Christ as the only savior in order to promote dialogue with others are being tempted by the Antichrist, retired Italian Cardinal Giacomo Biffi told Pope Benedict XVI.

...

If Christians set aside their belief that salvation comes only through Christ, he said, they may find dialogue with others easier, but they will have denied their obligation to share the Gospel and will have placed themselves "on the side of the Antichrist."

Wow. Who's B16 hanging out with? I suppose I know better than to ask that question. From Nostra Aetate:

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself. [My bolding].

The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life....

So a thin line is tread between Christ being the Way and the Light, and Catholicism being "merely" the "fullness" of Truth.

The Cardinal also reminded those listening that there are "absolute values such as the good, the true and the beautiful. One who perceives them and loves them also loves Christ, even if he does not know it, because Christ is the truth, beauty and justice."

(I can hear Nietzsche somewhere on my floor, yelling at me for not having the Will to Reading.)

How can you believe in a metaphysic like that? "The Good"? Absolutes? Come on!

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