Letters

Non-Christians

Fr Brian Harrison OS

Contents - May 2010 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Abuse of minors: why the Church is targeted - Michael Gilchrist Anglican: Anglicans and Christian unity: progress report - Bishop David Robarts News: The Church Around the World Culture Wars: Christians uniting to take a stand: the Manhattan Declaration - Bishop Julian Porteous Liturgy: Reform of the reform: a 'shift in liturgical culture' - Archbishop Mark Coleridge Culture: The vocation of Christians in public life - Archbishop Charles J. Chaput Parish life: A youth apostolate that works - Fr John O'Neill Obama Health Bill: how liberal nuns undermined US bishops' opposition - Babette Francis Foundations of Faith: The Mass: early centuries to Vatican II - Br Barry Coldrey Conversion: 'Strangely and suspiciously tall': an Evangelical meets the Mother of God - Terri Kelleher Poetry: BALLAD OF AN IRISH WHEAT FIELD Letters: Child abuse - Arnold Jago Letters: Non-Christians - Fr Brian Harrison OS Letters: Correction Books: BE TO ME A FATHER AND A PRIEST, by Fr Peter M. J. Stravinskas - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR, by George Orwell - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: INSIDE THE NEW AGE NIGHTMARE, by Randall N. Baer - Br Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: Our prayers and God's silence: what Scripture says - Arthur Ballingall

I'm sure I am not the only reader wondering how on earth an article like that of Fr Dudley Perera OMI got into a magazine like AD2000 (April 2010).

Fr Perera's bland optimism about the prospects for salvation of non-Christians and his evident discomfort with 'claims to superiority on both sides' borders on naturalism and relativism. Never mind the suggestion that non-Christian religious texts could also be 'inspired' and even used at Mass for the first reading!

In order to justify this radical suggestion, Fr Perera here actually falsifies the Vatican II declaration on non-Christian religions, Nostra Aetate. He says it attributes to these religions 'vestiges or rays of Revelation (vestigia revelationis)'.

It says nothing of the sort - only that they often contain 'a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men (radium illius Veritatis, quae illuminat omnes homines)'. That is, they often include certain naturally knowable truths (about God, the soul, and morality).

But neither NA nor any other Vatican II document suggests that any religions other than Judaism and Christianity contain 'revelation' - much less 'inspired' writings.

Indeed, a computer search of the entire Vatican website reveals zero occurrences of the expression 'vestigia revelationis'. And it is worth recalling that Vatican I defined infallibly that a merely natural knowledge of God is insufficient for salvation: in order to have the theological virtue of faith without which no one can be justified (cf. Hebrews 11:6, Catechism, 161), we must believe revealed truth on the authority of God who reveals it (DS 3032).

FR BRIAN HARRISON OS
St. Louis, Missouri, US

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 23 No 4 (May 2010), p. 16