|
FOR OBLATES OF MARY IMMACULATE AND
ALL PEOPLE OF FAITH
|
"Our Oblate spirituality also brings us
into dialogue with people of other religious traditions.
Grounded in our Catholic faith,
we seek to understand how others believe in God.
Oblate spirituality enables us
to respect other religions and to work with them so that our world
will reflect the heart of God.”
Very Rev. Louis Lougen OMI,
superior general, “Praying with the Missionary Oblates of Mary
Immaculate,” Catholic Digest,
July/August 2011, pp. 28-29.
The entire article is a very
clear and inspiring description of our religious community; the 6
page article may be googled:
Louis Lougen Catholic Digest
Proclamation
(Shorthand for the necessity of
Jesus and the Community He Found for salvation)
Ecumensim
(Shorthand for divisions harming the
Gospel; yet each Christian Church is a resource
Dialogue
(Shorthand that the Sprit works in other
religions. and in all people of good will)
Any issues or suggestions with this Web Site, please contact the web master at:
Web Master
“Proclamation is the
permanent priority of mission.
The Church cannot elude Christ’s
explicit mandate nor deprive men and women of the ‘Good News’ about
their being loved and saved by God,” Pope John Paul II,
On the Permanent Validity of the Church’s
Missionary Mandate, #44.
We also remember Archbishop Marcello
Zago OMI calling attention to #’s 55-57, where the pope examines
Dialogue as an ever growing part of Proclamation.
The archbishop is responsible for much
of these paragraphs. See below Newsletter #3 Oct. 2005. for more on Archbishop Zago;
also click on "Oblate Missiologists" for the article on him. "The Pilgrim Church is missionary by her very
nature" (Vatican II, Decree on Missionary Activity #2, used widely
since).
“Certain
features of the Christian mystery have at times been more effectively
emphasized by other Churches or Ecclesial Communities” (Cardinal Walter
Kasper, A Handbook of Spiritual
Ecumenism, #10). Cardinal Kasper bases
this conviction on Vatican II’s Decree
on Ecumenism, #’s 4, 14.
Many theologians, beginning with Father
Richard Gilsdorf, “Reassembling the Face
of Christ,” America,
Aug. 6, 1966, especially pp. 133-35 have shown what we need as Catholics to
“borrow” from other Christian Churches.
More
recently, the late Cardinal Avery Dulles SJ listed the precious qualities
each Christian Church can offer to the other:
“Saving Ecumenism from Itself,”
First Things,
Dec. 2007, #178, pp. 26-27. I cannot recommend too highly Cardinal Francis
George OMI’s evaluation of Evangelical and Catholic contributions to each
other: see page here “Manhattan Declaration.”
“We are obliged to hold that
the Holy Spirit offers everyone the possibility of sharing in the Paschal
Mystery in a manner known to God.”
This version of Vatican II’s
Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World,
#22 is used by Pope John Paul II three times in his encyclical letter
On the Permanent …Mandate:
especially #28, with a great explanation of the
Holy Spirit, and also directly in #’s 6 and 10 and indirectly in #18. It is
also used in the Catechism of the
Catholic
Church,
unfortunately without reference to the Holy Spirit:
#618.
SALVATION IS POSSIBLE IN OTHER RELIGIONS,
AND FOR ALL PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL, WITHOUT VISIBLE CONTACT WITH CHRISTIANITY.
