DOCSLIB.ORG

Some Islamic Reflections on D'costa's Vatican II: Catholic

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Some Islamic Reflections on D'costa's Vatican II: Catholic Louvain Studies 40 (2017): 286-302 doi: 10.2143/LS.40.3.3245493 © 2017 by Louvain Studies, all rights reserved Some Islamic Reflections on D’Costa’s Vatican II: Catholic Doctrines on Jews and Muslims Tim Winter Abstract. — This article presents a critical review of D’Costa’s work from a Muslim perspective. Beginning with the ‘continuity or rupture’ controversy, it suggests that Vatican II’s pronouncements and general ethos of engagement with Muslims are in fact in substantive discontinuity with earlier encyclical positions, and have been seen favourably by Muslims concerned to bring Catholics into better harmony with Qur’anic perspectives. D’Costa has rightly signalled the influence of Louis Massignon on the drafters of the relevant conciliar documents, and the article concludes by taking D’Costa’s reflections further, with a theological meditation on Massignon’s Christian acceptance of the Prophet of Islam, and his rehabilitation of the concept of the ‘Semitic’, as part of a larger sea-change in Christian attitudes, in both theology and liturgy, which might presage a fuller and more authentic understanding of Islamic revelation. One might question the right of a non-Christian to take sides in the ongoing arguments over whether Vatican II’s brave enterprise of aggiorna­ mento and ressourcement (curiously, no German word for what took place springs to mind) polluted the deposit of faith with doctrinal innovations. For Muslims, a due regard for Catholics as members of a ‘protected’ religion, with whom one might safely share meat and even, under some circumstances, intermarry, takes little cognizance of such matters, prefer- ring a rather loosely-defined criterion of self-identification with Biblical authority (the implicitly honorific title of People of the Book, to be distinguished sharply from heathens). On the further margins of Chris- tianity jurists might puzzle over the inclusion of, say, Mormons, but a victory for Tridentine traditionalism, or for liberal explorers of the most hazy conciliar novelties, would not affect the Muslim judgment that self- identified Catholics are fully and legitimately Christian. And yet so much in D’Costa’s book is of immediate and suggestive interest to a Muslim reader. The first chapter, which he fears some will find ‘tedious’, is in fact a finely-grained exposition, largely free of the SomE Islamic REflEctioNs oN D’Costa’s VAticAN II 287 more abstruse jargon, of the difficulty of accurately classing the various hermeneutical responses to the conciliar texts, an investigation which often recalls parallel discussions in Islamic hermeneutics about the muhkam and the mutashabih, the ‘clear’ and the ‘ambiguous’ utterances which need to be distinguished in authoritative texts and even in revelation itself. One would have wished for some echo of the insistence found among Muslim exegetes as they contemplate the sheer difficulty of equivocal locutions, who conclude that God Himself wishes there to be ikhtilaf, difference, among His interpreters.1 Is that a normative desire of the Catholic magisterium? Certainly, Muslims who engage with Cath- olics note that the polysemy of authoritative texts can support a refined culture of the defence of divergent views, which is only threatened when a zealous fringe (usually sedevacantist, fiercely liberal or crypto-Protestant) insists that one reading alone is right and therefore tolerable. Like most Muslims, Catholics tend to inhabit a community of “precedent and con- gregation” (sunna wa-jama‘a), the latter being a family of reasonable dissent, assured by the complexity of the former and the stimuli of the times. One of the legacies of Vatican II seems to have been the broadening of Catholic discussions, enabled often by the circumlocutions of the documents, and, as D’Costa shows, by the difficulty experienced by even the most forensic redaction critics in definitively establishing the docu- ments’ history, intent, and theological context. That is, the first Council declared to be pastoral in character, while alienating liberal and reactionary edges of the Church, evidently enriched Catholicism’s internal conversa- tion, as well as providing a broadened space in which the Curia, the laity, and the professional theologians could converse. Vatican II was not primarily or initially convened to deal with the religious Other, and the most doughty controversies which it ignited or intensified appeared in areas removed fairly far from D’Costa’s concerns. Of these, the questions of religious liberty and liturgical reform seem to have loomed the largest in the exegetical battles, and it was here that the ‘continuity or rupture’ debate has been especially productive of polemic and intricate explication. It was these areas which Congar had in mind when he imprudently wrote that the Church had experienced its “Octo- ber Revolution,”2 while Ratzinger himself famously called Gaudium et Spes “a kind of counter-Syllabus.”3 It is here that the “rupture” diagnosis 1. Muhammad Khalid Masud, Shatibi’s Philosophy of Islamic Law (Revised version, Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1995), 245. 2. Yves Congar, Le Concile au jour le jour: deuxième session (Paris: Cerf, 1964), 115. 3. Massimo Faggioli, Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2012), 74. 288 tim WiNtEr seems to be most compelling. Eamon Duffy concludes that the post- conciliar church must evolve a capacity to admit error: “Roman theology has simply not yet found a way of acknowledging that the institutional Church itself could err and sin […],” disputing the notion “that the Church’s doctrinal magisterium had been ‘silent’ on the question of reli- gious liberty until 1965.”4 The case here seemed clear-cut: Mirari Vos (1832) had inveighed against liberty of conscience, as had the Syllabus of Errors, but the conciliar bishops, most of whom had taken the Oath against Modernism, passed Dignitatis Humanae by a huge majority. D’Costa strives manfully with this volte face, and offers a nuanced critique of, notably, John O’Malley’s conclusion that Dignitatis Humanae entails a “silent rejection” of earlier positions (the theme of silence again, so frequently invoked by interpreters of this council).5 Readers of a willing mind may buy his conclusion that for the magisterium, the new teachings on religious freedom were not a paradigm shift but another learned and misunderstood ressourcement of a tradition which, however productive of allocutions, bulls and encyclicals, contrived to remain ‘silent’ on the ques- tion which Dignitatis Humanae tackled so directly.6 Dogma, when offi- cially promulgated through the Church’s teaching authority, needs metic- ulous and responsible mapping. D’Costa suggests an almost biological image of doctrines as living beings, which may hibernate for centuries, be revived, and even breed; they may grow and bloom luxuriantly (as with the 19th and 20th century Marian declarations); they may add to the rich mix of the deposit of faith, but – and here the analogy breaks down – they may not change or disappear.7 Like souls, once they are originated they are immortal, whatever their earthly travails. Looking at Catholic doctrines about doctrine, then, credo ut intel- ligam tends to be the operative principle. Conservative or liberalising, optimistic or pessimistic dispositions in the hearts of theologians find in the conciliar documents a set of mirrors to their own predilections; the pre-existing cognitive frame inevitably dictates exegesis. D’Costa coher- ently defends the continuist position, but it should be said that the diagnosis of rupture remains formidable, particularly when not driven by nostalgia (the besetting weakness of Lefebvre, with his adversions to la vieille France). Curiously, the work seen by many as the most meticulous 4. Eamon Duffy, Faith of Our Fathers: Reflections on Catholic Tradition (London and New York: Continuum, 2004), 166. 5. Gavin D’Costa, Vatican II: Catholic Doctrines on Jews and Muslims (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 25n. 6. Ibid., 47. 7. Ibid., 9, 16. SomE Islamic REflEctioNs oN D’Costa’s VAticAN II 289 and objective refutation of the Council as a treasonable innovation, by the former peritus Romano Amerio, does not appear in D’Costa’s other- wise impressively broad bibliography.8 Amerio’s task, like D’Costa’s, is to investigate the documents jurisprudentially rather than as a set of poetic and pastoral meditations. On the question of religious liberty, particu- larly, he presents an almost impeccable case. D’Costa adopts the same method of close reading when glossing the conciliar documents which touch upon Islam. From his concordist stand- point he must decline the assessment of a key peritus, the great Egyptian Dominican Georges Anawati, who saw the new articulations on Islam as a “radical novelty.”9 The approach is instead to show that medieval and later ecclesial language about Islam, however bristling with anathemas, does not need to be taken as part of the indispensable deposit of faith, and that Nostra Aetate, in particular, may be seen as speaking where ear- lier the magisterium was technically silent. There was never a definitive Catholic declaration on Islam, its Prophet or its God; for the premodern church the formal doctrine was in potentia, being yet uncreated. Little would be served by closely parsing D’Costa’s forensic assessments and exegetic choices in demonstrating the existence of this silence; again, this may be an internal matter of Catholic authenticity best left to Catholics themselves. Amerio, for one, does not believe in it. Still, whatever the technical assessment, the ship’s change of course was undeniable. One notes with interest and relief how a very small number of Islam experts, together with their allies (Rahner, Chenu, Daniélou, Montini himself, and other admirers of Massignon),10 contrived to take the assembled Fathers, most of whom at the outset would have preferred a traditionalist denunciation of Islam,11 together with a hardly less conservative Curia largely appointed under Pius XII, and to secure the passage of a text which now required Catholics to “look with favour” on Islam.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • John Courtney Murray and Martin Luther on the Relationship Between Church and State Faith Elizabeth Burgess
    Hastings Law Journal Volume 29 | Issue 6 Article 12 1-1978 John Courtney Murray and Martin Luther on the Relationship between Church and State Faith Elizabeth Burgess Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_law_journal Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Faith Elizabeth Burgess, John Courtney Murray and Martin Luther on the Relationship between Church and State, 29 Hastings L.J. 1561 (1978). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol29/iss6/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Law Journal by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. John Courtney Murray and Martin Luther on the Relationship Between Church and State By FAr= ELIZABETH BURGESS* Introduction IT IS TEN YEARS since the death of the well-known American Jesuit, John Courtney Murray. Murray's scholarly life exem- plified the enormous changes which have taken place in the Roman Catholic Church during the last fifty years. He began his writing in the early 1940's and quickly became involved in the issue of the relationship between Roman Catholicism and modem democ- racy. This involvement led him to the broader question of formu- lating a theory of the relationship between church and state which could be applied to different political situations. Murray's work in the area of church and state elicited strong opposition, and by the early 1950's he had been advised to let the subject rest; at least he should not write anything on the church-state question without clear- ing his ideas with his superiors first.
    [Show full text]
  • Dignitatis Humanae: the Catholic Church's Path to Political Security
    Mystērion: The Theology Journal of Boston College Volume I Issue I Article 4 Dignitatis humanae: The Catholic Church’s Path to Political Security Sean O’Neil Boston College, [email protected] DIGNITATIS HUMANAE: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S PATH TO POLITICAL SECURITY SEAN O’NEIL1* Abstract: The Catholic Church has always had a complicated relationship with the political states in which it operates. While much of the Church’s history has shown that the institutional Church’s power relative to the state fluctuates as it has sought to retain political autonomy, it was in the centuries after the Enlightenment in which the most serious threats to the Church’s temporal security began to arise. Considering these alarming trends, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis humanae) revisited the Church’s relationship with the state in an attempt to secure the Church’s political security in the twentieth century and beyond. Primarily focused on the right to religious freedom, Dignitatis humanae’s authors construct an argument based upon individual claims to religious liberty that ultimately allows the Church to confer upon itself similar protections. Though Dignitatis humanae cedes political authority, it reasserts the Church’s primacy in religious considerations, as well as the disparate judgmental capacities of religious and secular authorities. In concluding, this article will argue that Dignitatis humanae’s significance is two-fold: (1) the Church relinquishes claims to secular governing authority, but (2) elevates its true source of political protection—its individual members—to the forefront of its concern. Introduction In response to questioning from the council of Hebrew elders about his preaching of the Gospel, Saint Peter noted: “We must obey God rather than any human authority.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Inter Mirifica' After 40 Years
    1 ‘Inter Mirifica’ after 40 Years Franz-Josef Eilers, svd The Decree on Social Communication of Vatican II Inter Mirifica received the biggest number of “no” votes in the final voting for any council document. This was probably due to the fact that the text was heavily criticized by communications people and some council fathers even tried a campaign at the entrance to Saint Peter’s Basilica to stop it. The original proposal for the document had 114 paragraphs which were reduced to a skeleton of now 24 paragraphs only, with some basic considerations. I. After 40 years, Inter Mirifica appears in several ways different from those days. Despite its history, the document now looks rather like the starting “shot” for more professional considerations. The Pastoral instruction, Communio et Progressio, is still considered the best document on church and social communication even beyond the Catholic Church. The bishops rightly felt that they were not fully competent for a professional document which later was confirmed by the short three-day council discussions (23-27 Nov 1962) on the text. Most Episcopal interventions of those days reflect a very rudimentary background on social communication, to say the least. Communio et Progressio, on the other hand, went through different stages of reconstruction and rewriting even in different languages in the course of seven years till it finally was published. Without the happenings around Inter Mirifica and a special mandate for the pastoral instruction (IM 23), Communio et Progressio would not exist. Other developments documenting the permanent value of Inter Mirifica include the following: 1.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Ad Gentes, Evangelii Nuntiandi, Redemptoris Missio and Dialogue
    CHURCH TEACHING ON MISSION: Ad Gentes, Evangelii Nuntiandi, Redemptoris Missio and Dialogue and Proclamation Stephen Bevans, SVD Introduction This paper will summarize the church’s official teaching in the Roman Magisterium on the theology and conduct of its evangelizing mission. Rather than summarize each document, however, which would be quite tedious and repetitious, I will rather present the several aspects of each document that present new aspects to the Magisterium’s teaching on mission. The original request for this paper suggested that I look only at Evangelii Nuntiandi (EN) and Redemptoris Missio (RM). It seems to me, however, that a more rounded picture of contemporary church teaching on mission needs to start with Vatican II’s Decree on Missionary Activity, Ad Gentes and needs also to include the document issued shortly after RM by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Council for Dialogue, Dialogue and Proclamation (DP). This last document, issued in 1991, is now eighteen years old. Since then two other documents have been issued by the Roman Magisterium that are important for the church’s mission–Dominus Iesus in 2000 and Doctrinal Notes on Some Aspects of Evangelization in 2007,both issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. These, however, are more cautionary in tone and do not present any new or constructive teaching as such. I will refer to them towards the end of the paper, but only briefly. It might be helpful to read or refer to the major documents I am reflecting on here. They are all available in Latin, English, Spanish, German and Italian on the Vatican Website (vatican.va).
    [Show full text]
  • Examining Nostra Aetate After 40 Years: Catholic-Jewish Relations in Our Time / Edited by Anthony J
    EXAMINING NOSTRA AETATE AFTER 40 YEARS EXAMINING NOSTRA AETATE AFTER 40 YEARS Catholic-Jewish Relations in Our Time Edited by Anthony J. Cernera SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY PRESS FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT 2007 Copyright 2007 by the Sacred Heart University Press All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, contact the Sacred Heart University Press, 5151 Park Avenue, Fairfield, Connecticut 06825 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Examining Nostra Aetate after 40 Years: Catholic-Jewish Relations in our time / edited by Anthony J. Cernera. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-888112-15-3 1. Judaism–Relations–Catholic Church. 2. Catholic Church– Relations–Judaism. 3. Vatican Council (2nd: 1962-1965). Declaratio de ecclesiae habitudine ad religiones non-Christianas. I. Cernera, Anthony J., 1950- BM535. E936 2007 261.2’6–dc22 2007026523 Contents Preface vii Nostra Aetate Revisited Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy 1 The Teaching of the Second Vatican Council on Jews and Judaism Lawrence E. Frizzell 35 A Bridge to New Christian-Jewish Understanding: Nostra Aetate at 40 John T. Pawlikowski 57 Progress in Jewish-Christian Dialogue Mordecai Waxman 78 Landmarks and Landmines in Jewish-Christian Relations Judith Hershcopf Banki 95 Catholics and Jews: Twenty Centuries and Counting Eugene Fisher 106 The Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding of Sacred Heart University:
    [Show full text]
  • Nostra Aetate Catholic Church’S Relation with People of Other Religions
    259 The Catholic ChNuorscthr’as AJoeutartnee: y into Dialogue Patrick McInerney* The Declaration (NA) is Vatican II’s ground-breaking document on the Nostra Aetate Catholic Church’s relation with people of other religions. 1 The two previous Popes have called it ‘the Magna Carta’ of the Church’s new direction in interreligious dialogue. 2 For centuries church teaching and practice in regard to other religions had been encapsulated in the axiom extra ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the church no salvation). represents a ‘radically new Nostra Aetate understanding of the relations of the church to the other great world religions.’ 3 * Fr Patrick McInerney LSAI, MTheol, PhD is a Columban missionary priest. Assigned to Pakistan for twenty years, he has a licentiate from the in Rome (1986), a Masters in TheologyP foronmtif itchael MInsetlibtuotuer nfoer C thoell Segtued oy fo Df Aivrianbitiyc (a2n0d0 I3s)l aamndic Ps hD from the Australian Catholic University (2009). He is currently Director of the Columban Mission Institute, Coordinator of its and a staff member of its C. e Hnter el efoctru Crehsr iisnt iamni-sMsioulsoligmy Rate ltahteio ns anCde tnhter eB rfork eMn iBssaiyo nIn Sstiutduites’s In C2a0t1h1o lhiec wInassti tauwtea rodfe Sdy dthnee y title of Honorary Fellow of the CAeunsttrrea lfioanr MCiastshiolnic a Undn iCvuerltsuitrye.. He attends interfaith and multi-faith conferences, and gives talks on Islam, Christian-Muslim Relations and Interreligious Relations to a wide variety of audiences. 1. Vatican II, ‘ : Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,’ inN ostra Aetate Vatican Council I, I:e dT.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Vatican II Happened the Way It Did, and Who’S to Blame
    SPECIAL EDITION SUMMER 2017 Dealing frankly with a messy pontificate, without going off the rails No accidents: why Vatican II happened the way it did, and who’s to blame Losing two under- appreciated traditionalists Bishops on immigration: why can’t we call them what they are? $8.00 Publisher’s Note The nasty personal remarks about Cardinal Burke in a new EDITORIAL OFFICE: book by a key papal advisor, Cardinal Maradiaga, follow a pattern PO Box 1209 of other taunts and putdowns of a sitting cardinal by significant Ridgefield, Connecticut 06877 cardinals like Wuerl and even Ouellette, who know that under [email protected] Pope Francis, foot-kissing is the norm. And everybody half- Your tax-deductible donations for the continu- alert knows that Burke is headed for Church oblivion—which ation of this magazine in print may be sent to is precisely what Wuerl threatened a couple of years ago when Catholic Media Apostolate at this address. he opined that “disloyal” cardinals can lose their red hats. This magazine exists to spotlight problems like this in the PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Church using the print medium of communication. We also Roger A. McCaffrey hope to present solutions, or at least cogent analysis, based upon traditional Catholic teaching and practice. Hence the stress in ASSOCIATE EDITORS: these pages on: Priscilla Smith McCaffrey • New papal blurtations, Church interference in politics, Steven Terenzio and novel practices unheard-of in Church history Original logo for The Traditionalist created by • Traditional Catholic life and beliefs, independent of AdServices of Hollywood, Florida. who is challenging these Can you help us with a donation? The magazine’s cover price SPECIAL THANKS TO: rorate-caeli.blogspot.com and lifesitenews.com is $8.
    [Show full text]
  • Branson-Shaffer-Vatican-II.Pdf
    Vatican II: The Radical Shift to Ecumenism Branson Shaffer History Faculty advisor: Kimberly Little The Catholic Church is the world’s oldest, most continuous organization in the world. But it has not lasted so long without changing and adapting to the times. One of the greatest examples of the Catholic Church’s adaptation to the modernization of society is through the Second Vatican Council, held from 11 October 1962 to 8 December 1965. In this gathering of church leaders, the Catholic Church attempted to shift into a new paradigm while still remaining orthodox in faith. It sought to bring the Church, along with the faithful, fully into the twentieth century while looking forward into the twenty-first. Out of the two billion Christians in the world, nearly half of those are Catholic.1 But, Vatican II affected not only the Catholic Church, but Christianity as a whole through the principles of ecumenism and unity. There are many reasons the council was called, both in terms of internal, Catholic needs and also in aiming to promote ecumenism among non-Catholics. There was also an unprecedented event that occurred in the vein of ecumenical beginnings: the invitation of preeminent non-Catholic theologians and leaders to observe the council proceedings. This event, giving outsiders an inside look at 1 World Religions (2005). The Association of Religious Data Archives, accessed 13 April 2014, http://www.thearda.com/QuickLists/QuickList_125.asp. CLA Journal 2 (2014) pp. 62-83 Vatican II 63 _____________________________________________________________ the Catholic Church’s way of meeting modern needs, allowed for more of a reaction from non-Catholics.
    [Show full text]
  • The Catholic Church's Perspective of Human Dignity As the Basis Of
    start page: 221 Stellenbosch eological Journal 2017, Vol 3, No 2, 221–241 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2017.v3n2.a10 Online ISSN 2413-9467 | Print ISSN 2413-9459 2017 © Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust Th e Catholic Church’s perspective of human dignity as the basis of dialogue with the secular world Alva, Reginald Nanzan University, Japan [email protected] Abstract The Catholic Church maintains that the Imago Dei is the ground for human dignity. The secular world, too, endorses human dignity as the foundation for human rights without referring to Imago Dei. The Catholic Church and the secular world both agree on the importance of human dignity, even though they differ on their views about the source of human dignity. In this paper, we shall examine if human dignity can be the basis of a fruitful dialogue between the Catholic Church and the secular world in order to make our world a better place to live. The primary resources for our study are the Church documents on human dignity, and the opinions of distinguished thinkers on the need to promote a culture of dialogue between religions and secular world. Key words Catholic Church; Imago Dei; secular world; human dignity 1. Introduction The United Nations (UN) in its charter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) gave a pivotal role to the concept of human dignity.1 Even though the charter does not refer to the transcendental nature of human person or Imago Dei (image of God) as the basis of human dignity, it maintains that all persons are born with equal and inherent dignity, irrespective of their class, caste, creed, religion, sex, and economical, political or social conditions.
    [Show full text]
  • “The Paths of Mission”
    “The Paths of Mission” Chapter V of John Paul II’s Redemptoris Missio: On the Permanent Validity of the Church's Missionary Mandate 7 December 1990 Contents of Redemptoris Missio Blessing Introduction #1 - 3 I. Jesus Christ, the Only Savior #4 - 11 II. The Kingdom of God # 12 - 20 III. The Holy Spirit, the Principal Agent of Mission #21 - 30 IV. The Vast Horizons of the Mission Ad Gentes #31 - 40 V. The Paths of Mission #41 - 60 VI. Leaders and Workers in the Missionary Apostolate #61 - 76 VII. Cooperation in Missionary Activity #76 - 86 VIII. Missionary Spirituality #87 – 91 Conclusion #92 http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp- ii_enc_07121990_redemptoris-missio_en.html Contents CHAPTER V - THE PATHS OF MISSION............................................................................................ 1 The First Form of Evangelization Is Witness ....................................................................................... 1 The Initial Proclamation of Christ the Savior ...................................................................................... 2 Conversion and Baptism ..................................................................................................................... 3 Forming Local Churches ...................................................................................................................... 5 "Ecclesial Basic Communities" as a Force for Evangelization ............................................................. 7 Incarnating the Gospel in Peoples'
    [Show full text]
  • Missio Ad Gentes in the Acts of the Apostles Edited by Fabrizio Meroni
    Mission&Formation Missio ad Gentes in the Acts of the Apostles edited by Fabrizio Meroni U RBANIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS © UUP Mission&Formation © UUP Fabrizio Meroni (ed.) Missio ad Gentes in the Acts of the Apostles Mission&Formation ISBN 978-88-401-5054-3 © Urbaniana University Press 00120 Città del Vaticano via Urbano VIII, 16 – 00165 Roma tel. + 39 06 69889651 – 9688 fax + 39 06 69882182 e-mail: [email protected] www.urbaniana.press Pontifical Missionary Union Via di Propaganda, 1C – 00187 Roma www.october2019.va © UUP On the front cover Portrait of the Evangelists Luke and John, the frontispiece to St. John’s Gospel, Octateuch, Four Gospels and Synodicon (late 17th century), Gondar, Ethiopia. All rights reserved Finito di stampare nel mese di giugno 2019 Missio ad Gentes in the Acts of the Apostles edited by Fabrizio Meroni © UUP U RBANIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS © UUP Preface ince the outset of his magisterium, Pope Francis has repeatedly Scalled our attention to the necessity to bring about a major mis- sionary awakening based on the “evangelical approach to the Church’s mission in the world”.1 This calling is in keeping with Pope Benedict XV’s insight in the Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud, and on the revitalization of the missio ad gentes “as engine and horizon of the faith”.2 A renewed missionary engagement of all Christians is in- deed necessary at a time when mission needs to regain its true signif- icance, life force, and evangelizing drive, “so that the spirit of the missio ad gentes may animate the path of the Church”3 today and for the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Confronting Anti-Semitism in Catholic Theology After the Holocaust Carolyn Wesnousky Connecticut College, [email protected]
    Connecticut College Digital Commons @ Connecticut College History Honors Papers History Department 2012 “Under the Very Windows of the Pope”: Confronting Anti-Semitism in Catholic Theology after the Holocaust Carolyn Wesnousky Connecticut College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/histhp Part of the European History Commons, History of Religion Commons, and the Jewish Studies Commons Recommended Citation Wesnousky, Carolyn, "“Under the Very Windows of the Pope”: Confronting Anti-Semitism in Catholic Theology after the Holocaust" (2012). History Honors Papers. 15. http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/histhp/15 This Honors Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the History Department at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Honors Papers by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author. “Under the Very Windows of the Pope”: Confronting Anti-Semitism in Catholic Theology after the Holocaust An Honors Thesis Presented by Carolyn Wesnousky To The Department of History In partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in the Major Field Connecticut College New London, Connecticut April 26, 2012 1 Table of Contents Introduction……………………………………………………...…………..4 Chapter 1: Living in a Christian World......…………………….….……….15 Chapter 2: The Holocaust Comes to Rome…………………...…………….49 Chapter 3: Preparing the Ground for Change………………….…………...68 Chapter 4: Nostra Aetate before the Second Vatican Council……………..95 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………110 Appendix……………………………………………..……………………114 Bibliography………………………………………………………………..117 2 Acknowledgements As much as I would like to claim sole credit for the effort that went into creating this paper, I need to take a moment and thank the people without whom I never would have seen its creation.
    [Show full text]