From the Lambeth Conference Canterbury: Monday, July 22nd

From www.forwardinfaith.com

FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 4
Jul 23, 2008

“APOLOGISTS, NOT APOLOGISERS”

Cardinal Ivan Dias, sometime Catholic Archbishop of Bombay and now Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, addressed a plenary session of the Lambeth Conference this evening on the subject, “Mission, Social Justice, and Evangelization”.


Evangelisation is not an option, but a command of the Lord to every Christian, and especially to “the leaders of the people of God”, the Cardinal affirmed. God wills all men and women to be saved through Jesus Christ, he said: “A Christian must, therefore, consider himself as on a `mission’ to proclaim the sacred person and saving mission of Jesus Christ at all times and without any compromise whatsoever, and to spread Gospel values to every heart and home and culture”.

The ultimate context of evangelisation, the Cardinal continued, is “the spiritual combat, described in the Books of Genesis and Revelation”. That spiritual conflict is manifest in our times, he said, in “secularism, which seeks to build a Godless society”; spiritual indifference, which is insensitive to transcendental values; and relativism, which is contrary to the permanent tenets of the Gospel”. All of these, he said, foster a culture of death: “abortions (the slaughter of innocent unborn children), divorces (which kill sacred marriage bonds blessed by God), materialism and moral aberrations (which suffocate the joy of living and lead often to profound psychic depression), economic, social and political injustices (which crush human rights), violence, murders and the like...”. The family and youth, the Cardinal stated, are particularly vulnerable to this culture.

How is this mission to be pursued? First and foremost, the Cardinal declared, by “exemplary Christian living”. Pagans were attracted to the Christian faith, he noted, because of the way Christians behaved – and in particular, by their love for one another. Quoting at length from the second-century Letter to Diognetus, he spoke of how ordinary Christians’ lives appeared – and yet how extraordinary they were, in that these citizens lived as transients and aliens, living not after the flesh but as citizens of heaven, not exposing their infants, holding the marriage-bed inviolate, keeping the laws but in their own lives transcending the laws.

“This”, Cardinal Dias asserted, “is, in short, what Christian witness is all about, and what the world needs today”:

“It needs the credible witness of simple Christians who live in the world, with its joys and sorrows, its hopes and tribulations, but are not of the world. In fact, our contemporaries believe more willingly in witnesses, than in teachers; and if they do believe teachers, it is because they are witnesses....The world today needs Christian apologists, not apologisers: it needs persons like John Henry Cardinal Newman, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Hilaire Belloc and others, who brilliantly expose the beauty of the Christian faith without blushing or compromise”.

Evangelism by the witness of Christian lives, the Cardinal suggested, is complemented by inculturation and inter-religious dialogue.

Inculturation “incarnates” the Gospel message into cultures and local contexts, “so that it is meaningful to the members of a given Christian community and is easily understood by those outside it”. The Gospel purifies the culture, but at the same time it needs to be expressed within the culture so that its message can be heard and embraced.

Inter-religious dialogue is based upon the recognition that “the Holy Spirit works outside the visible confines of the Churches”, the Cardinal stated. Thus, there are “elements which are true, good and holy” in other religious and cultural traditions. These should be regarded “with sincere reverence” as “seeds of the Word”, “a ray of the Truth which enlightens all human beings”. “For a Christian then”, the Cardinal asserted, “a dialogue of religions entails the discovery of the relationship between the working of the Holy Spirit in the Christian faith and His persevering action in other religious traditions”.

This dialogue can be pursued in action – in day-to-day contacts with persons of other faiths and in concrete deeds of love in such fields as education and healthcare, and “initiatives in favour of the poor and the marginalised”. It can also be pursued in conversation – “a frank exchange of of notions on God and religion-related topics”, and learning “about each others’ spiritual practices and mystical encounters.

For “Christ Our Lord did not come to abolish, but to fulfill”, the Cardinal reminded the Lambeth bishops, citing Matthew 5.17 – “to bring to fruition the seeds planted by the Holy Spirit in the various religious traditions”. “We must pick out those values in non Christian traditions which are compatible with Christian thought and behaviour and use them as starting points for a fruitful inter-religious dialogue leading to an explanation of their fulfillment in the divine person of Our Lord Jesus Christ”.

The Cardinal then turned to the ecumenical thrust of evangelisation. He recognized that a “united effort would certainly strengthen the implementation of Christ’s mandate to preach the Gospel to every creature”. Citing the work of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, he stated that “The more Anglicans and Catholics are able to study issues together and to discern an appropriate Gospel response, the stronger will be the impact of their mission endeavors”. But, he cautioned, this will require unity among the faithful, between them and their pastors, and above all, among those pastors themselves.

“...a unity which binds them together in the apostolic faith is intrinsic to the Church’s mission of speaking and spreading the Gospel. Hence, when they are of one mind and heart notwithstanding their diversity, their missionary thrust is indeed enhanced and strengthened. But, when the diversity degenerates into division, it becomes a counter-witness which seriously compromises their image and endeavours to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
The Cardinal went on to speak of a “spiritual Altzheimer’s”, in which we are “oblivious of our past heritage and apostolic traditions”, and of an “ecclesial Parkinson’s”, in which we go “whimsically our own way without any co-ordination with the head or the other members of our community”.


Cardinal Diaz concluded his address by speaking of Mary as the “Star of the New Evangelization”. She teaches us “how to be truly Spirit-filled and Spirit-led” by her fiat, “saying `yes’ to God; by her Magnificat, praising God; by her stabat, faithful to the very end. “As, in God’s Providence, the Blessed Virgin Mary had the unique privilege of giving the Saviour to all mankind, her assistance would be indispensable to evangelizers who seek to continue her mission of giving Christ to the world”. And indeed the reverence in which Mary is held by persons of other faiths make her “an important point of reference for inter-religious dialogue as well”.

Returning to his theme of spiritual warfare, the Cardinal asserted that their role as bishops requires shepherds continuously to “discern whether their pastoral endeavours are inspired by God, or motivated by human criteria, or prompted by the Evil one” [sic]. Citing Joyce Kilmer’s the poem, The Robe of Christ, he noted how easy it is to recognize the devil when he “comes in his proper form”, but how difficult when He comes in the guise of the man of sorrows. But “Christ’s Mother knows her Son”: she recognizes “the Man of Lies, disguised with fearful art; he has the wounded hands and feet, but not the wounded heart”.

In your correspondent’s view, Cardinal Diaz presented a positive and orthodox exposition of the new evangelisation. Yet in doing so, he took the opportunity to speak pointedly yet gently and with obvious affection to issues and concerns within the Anglican family which impede both its ability to pursue that work, and its relations with the (Roman) Catholic Church.