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Catholic World News News Feature

Vatican strongly affirms Church's duty to spread faith December 14, 2007

Acknowledging "a growing confusion about the Church's missionary mandate," the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has released an important 19-page document strongly defending the right and duty of all Catholics to spread the faith.

The CDF document-- which was released on December 14, accompanied by an unusually strong publicity effort-- responds to criticisms of Catholic efforts to bring new believers into the Church. The document states at the outset (quoting Pope John Paul II), "Every person has the right to hear the Good News." For Catholics, the CDF adds, "This right implies the corresponding duty to evangelize."

All believers, the CDF states, have a duty to participate in "the Christian mission of evangelization, which is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

[An official summary of the CDF document is available on the Vatican web site.]

The Catholic Church has been criticized in recent years for efforts to attract new believers. The Moscow patriarchate has complained bitterly about "proselytism" in Russia. In India, militant Hindus have charged that missionaries undermine the country's culture with their conversion campaigns. Some theologians have suggested that the Church should recognize the equal merits of other religions. (The CDF has issued warnings about the works of some Catholic theologians who have taken that line.)

In a detailed answer to those objections, the CDF affirms that while Catholics should respect believers other faiths, and should never engage in coercion or manipulation, the faithful still must do their best to spread the truths of the Gospel, and encourage others to enter the Catholic Church.

In a rebuke to those who have discouraged missionaries from seeking conversions, the CDF document clearly states:

In this connection, it needs also to be recalled that if a non-Catholic Christian, for reasons of conscience and having been convinced of Catholic truth, asks to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church, this is to be respected as the work of the Holy Spirit and as an expression of freedom of conscience and of religion. In such a case, it would not be question of proselytism in the negative sense that has been attributed to this term.

"In this connection, it needs also to be recalled that if a non-Catholic Christian, for reasons of conscience and having been convinced of Catholic truth, asks to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church, this is to be respected as the work of the Holy Spirit and as an expression of freedom of conscience and of religion. In such a case, it would not be question of proselytism in the negative sense that has been attributed to this term."

At a Vatican press conference introducing the new document, Cardinal Francis Arinze, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, remarked: "Indeed if a Christian did not try to spread the Gospel by sharing the excelling knowledge of Jesus Christ with others, we could suspect that Christian either of lack of total conviction on the faith, or of selfishness and laziness in not wanting to share the full and abundant means of salvation with his fellow human beings."

By encouraging others to become Catholic, the CDF explains, the faithful are exercising the virtue of charity, by sharing a treasure. Bringing new believers into the Catholic Church, the document states, "is not the expansion of a power-group, but rather entrance into the network of friendship with Christ which connects heaven and earth, different continents and ages."The document adds that "respect for religious freedom and its promotion must not in any way make us indifferent towards truth and goodness. Indeed, love impels the followers of Christ to proclaim to all the truth which saves."

In a passage that seems to answer the complaints of the Russian Orthodox Church, the CDF issues a special caution to missionaries working in places where other Christian denominations are strongly entrenched. In those societies, the document says, Catholic evangelists should show "true respect for the tradition and spiritual riches of such countries as well as a sincere spirit of cooperation."

However, that respect for other traditions does not eliminate the duty to spread the truth, the CDF observes. At the December 14 press conference Archbishop Angelo Amato, the secretary of the CDF, said: "The necessary respect for different sensibilities and particular traditions cannot preclude the need for freedom or for truth." Cardinal Ivan Dias, the prefect of the Congregation for Evangelization, also participated in the Friday press conference. He made the observation that in spreading the Gospel, Christians should not pretend to any personal superiority, but should introduce others to "full knowledge of the truth in Jesus Christ." In a conversation with Vatican Radio about the document, Father Augustine DiNoia, the American undersecretary of the CDF, revealed that the document released on December 14 is the result of a process begun by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger during his tenure as prefect of the CDF. The future Pontiff, Father DiNoia said, saw a pressing need to challenge "a pluralistic theology of religion which essentially states that all religions are equally valid in leading a person to salvation, so that the Church and Christ cannot claim that Christianity has some special path to salvation, but that each path is valid for people let’s say who are born into it culturally or socially."