Vatican Document Reasserts Catholicism Superiority
Baptist Press
September 8, 2000
VATICAN CITY, Italy (BP) -- A Vatican document issued Sept.
5 won't set well with evangelicals and Protestants. As
described in the lead paragraph of a Washington Post story,
it 'declares that individuals can attain full salvation from
earthly sin only through the spiritual grace of the Catholic
Church and that other faiths -- including Protestant
Christian ones -- have defects that place their followers in
a gravely deficient situation in seeking salvation.'
As recounted in the lead paragraph of a Los Angeles Times
story:
"Censuring what it called the spread of 'religious
relativism,' the Vatican on Tuesday instructed Roman
Catholics to uphold the dogma that their church is the sole
path to spiritual salvation for all humanity."
The 36-page Vatican document was released at a news
conference in Rome by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the principal
Vatican body for defining and upholding theological
tradition.
Vatican officials said the document has the explicit
approval of 80-year-old Pope John Paul II, who has occupied
the papacy for 22 years.
Titled "Declaration Dominus Iesus [Lord Jesus] ... On the
Unity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the
Church," the document is the culmination of two years of
study, though it breaks no new ground theologically for the
Catholic Church, according to news reports, which also noted
the document was aimed mainly at Catholic theologians and
its timing coincides with the millennial celebration of
Jesus' birth.
The position statement seemed to "question the considerable
ecumenical gains we have made," said Anglican world leader
George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury. His denomination
"does not for one moment accept that its order of ministry
and eucharist are deficient in any way," he added. The World
Council of Churches said that it would be a "tragedy" if
Christian cooperation were "obscured by...dialogue about
their relative authority and status," reported "The
Washington Post."
Vinson Synan, dean of the school of divinity at Regent
University and a noted Pentecostal scholar, told Charisma
News Service today that he hoped Protestant Christians would
focus on the positive aspects of the Vatican announcement.
They could agree that salvation is to be found through Jesus
Christ.
"But the Catholic church has a PR problem because there are
documents going back for centuries stating it is the one and
only church, and yet since Vatican II it has opened up to
recognize the validity and authenticity of non-Roman
Catholic communities. There's a kind of double view that the
church has to deal with."
Killian McDonnell, president of the Institute for Ecumenical
and Cultural Research, and a recognized Catholic authority
on Pentecostal issues, said that he thought Protestants
"will disagree, and possibly take offense." He added: "But I
don't see this as a rolling back of the ecumenical cause. I
think that the statement is just wanting to reaffirm those
kind of basic truths which in an ecumenical context
sometimes might get lost."
Among the Vatican document's assertions, according to news
reports:
-- "This truth of faith does not lessen the sincere respect
that the [Catholic] Church has for the religions of the
world," but it "rules out, in a radical way, ... the belief
that one religion is as good as another."
-- Non-Catholic Christian churches "suffer from defects,"
partly because they do not recognize the authority of the
pope, but they "have by no means been deprived of
significance and importance in the mystery of salvation."
Other Christian denominations are not "churches in the
proper sense," but their members are, through baptism, "in a
certain communion, albeit imperfect, with the [Catholic]
Church."
-- The office of the pope is rooted in "the will of God,"
with the entire church "governed by the Successor of Peter
and by the Bishops in communion with him."
-- Other religions, though not specifically named in the
document, have "gravely deficient" chances for salvation due
to "superstitions or other errors [that] constitute an
obstacle to salvation."
-- Catholic missionaries have a duty to evangelize adherents
of other faiths, to teach that Jesus is "the sole redeemer."
The inter-religious dialogue in which the Catholic Church
has engaged other faiths, the document said, is simply "part
of her evangelizing mission."
-- The Catholic Church opposes such beliefs as divine truth
being elusive; different truths that exist for some
cultures; that the last judgment of God does not loom; and
that reason can be the only source of knowledge.
-- "The lack of unity among Christians is certainly a wound
for the church," the document said, hindering "the complete
fulfillment of her universality in history."
The Los Angeles Times noted that the document was preceded
by a Vatican order in June that bishops avoid references to
"sister churches" and instead remember that "the one, holy,
catholic and apostolic Church is not sister but 'mother' of
all the particular [Christian] churches."
Several news reports noted that the document seemed to be a
departure for Pope John Paul II, who is a Catholic
traditionalist but has engaged in numerous overtures to mend
rifts between Catholicism and other Christian communions
such as Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicans and Lutherans and to
promote understanding between Catholics and Jews, Muslims
and adherents of other non-Christian religions.