The ever-trenchant Mundabor has a post about Cardinal Tauran on the New Evangelization. Jean-Louis Cardinal Tauran is the president of the Pontifical Council of Inter-religious Dialogue. The Cardinal has made statements such as these:

“In this pluralistic situation, we have no other option than consciously cultivating friendly relationships with all of them based on mutual respect and understanding that eventually could lead to mutual collaboration for the common good, for peace and harmony towards the development of the society. This is all what interreligious dialogue is about: Being rooted in our own faith, cultivating, despite differences, harmonious relationships among believers of diverse religions and collaborating with them for the good of humanity with shared values and convictions.”

With all respect due to this prince of the Church, there are other options than simply cultivating friendships for the common good. Proselytizing, for starters. Dialogue is useless unless it leads to conversion. The goal of Christianity is not to produce “harmonious relationships among believers of diverse religions”. Jesus Himself preached the exact opposite. He wants saints, and not everyone is going to go along with that.

Yes, not everyone is going to heaven, but even fewer will go if those who follow Christ don’t convince others that following Him is more important than the “common good”. So avoid cultivating harmonious relationships that lead nowhere and tolerate a little conflict on behalf of Christ.

• proselytizing
• feelings
• dialogue
• new evangelization