"Are all religions true?" A Catholic Article Says Just Saying This Doesn't Make Sense

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The Catholic rejects nothing that is true, merely because they’re in non-Christian religions.

In fact, the Church can take from those religions what is useful. See LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN MEDITATION* Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of Christian Meditation – Orationis formas

The Catholic Church has the fullness of revealed Revelation, but that revelation did not come to people of all religions, nor only after Christ came. Many existed before Christ and had truths that were also revealed to the Church and the Church teaches.

There have been obstacles for non-Christians to convert and it’s often Christians who are the cause of those obstacles.

When Christ reveals himself to individuals and they receive the gift of Faith, Praise God.

However, don’t throw mud at others who are not Christian for the only one you dirty will be yourself.
 
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mdgspencer said:
This provides difficulties to those who simply say all religions are trure.
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When examining cases like these, it’s useful to be mindful of when in the timeline of that religion we are making the observation. Religions change over time, both in doctrine and practice. Few Christians alive today would recognize Christianity if they traveled back in time 2000 years.

The Canon, which many of us take for granted, was not settled until centuries after Christ. Even the Lord’s Prayer, which today is publicly known by virtually everyone, was a jealously guarded secret during periods of the early Church, forbidden to be shared with anyone who had not gone through the proper initiations. (See here, for example: CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Discipline of the Secret) Don’t forget about the practice of public penance, which is virtually unheard of today. Here’s St. Ambrose on that:
“As there is one baptism so there is one penance, which, however, is performed publicly” (De poenit., II, c. x, n. 95) Penance | Catholic Answers
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A little further down in that article, St. Augustine describes why Penance was allowed to be performed only once during a person’s entire lifetime.

Institutions, including religious institutions, change over time, often in very dramatic ways. By the time the conquistadors arrived in the New World, the Aztec culture was already very late in its development. The Europeans viewed a snapshot of what that religion was like at a brief moment in time, likely after it had had centuries or longer of being corrupted by very fallible humans. It really tells us nothing about any profound truths that religion might have contained.

For instance, one can imagine that the idea of human sacrifice started as a symbolic teaching about sacrificing the negative aspects of ourselves in order to grow closer to God. Teachings like this exist in Hinduism (e.g. the Bhagavad Gita), and one might also argue that this is the spiritual meaning behind some passages in the Old Testament (e.g. Gen 34:13-31, in which the sons of Jacob slaughter a city after it agreed to enter into the covenant of circumcision; or 2 Kings 2:23-25, in which the prophet Elisha used a curse by God to cause 42 children to be killed by bears)

It seems entirely reasonable that some ignorant Aztec priest, sometime in the history of that empire, took a story like that a little too literally, and decided to institute a literal, physical practice of human sacrifice. After a generation or so, that sort of thing becomes ingrained in the culture.

We should not be quick to judge. After all, anyone viewing Christianity during the Inquisition or the Crusades would come to a similar conclusion about how Christ’s teachings were used by the religious hierarchy at the time to justify torture, murder, and war.

As we know, the wrong actions and misunderstandings of those confused people are not an accurate reflection of the Truth contained in Christianity. And if so deep a corruption can find its way even into the Church founded by Jesus, why should we not assume that the same thing can happen to any religion?
 
If you are Seik then that’s what they believe.
My boss is Seik.
They belive in
Jesus
Mohammed
Buddha
And Islam
And a God with many hands are equal.
 
mdgspencer said:
This provides difficulties to those who simply say all religions are trure.
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Un-overcomeable ‘difficulties’ at that…

And since saying 'all religions are true’ is - False (some say - a Lie) …
those who’ll hold onto saying that could be said to be wasting their precious breath…

_
 
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Know what? That all religions are true or that this doesn’t make sense? I take it you mean the latter. However, if that were the case, we wouldn’t have Catholics on a Catholic Forum debating this and pointing out nuances regarding the question.
 
The OP article is just referencing what was said in Nostra Aetate regarding recognising what is good in other religions. I think that it was a real loss that that truth wasn’t highlighted by an appreciation of Amazonian religious expression at the Synod. Their ancestors without ever having been evangelised, were able to recognise a ‘Creator’ of all things and bow down in praise and thanksgiving to ‘it’. The whole event could have been a teaching moment such as St Paul used with the pagan Greeks.
 
EndTimes said:

Are all religions true?” A Catholic Article Says Just Saying This Doesn’t Make Sense​

The label Catholic - does not make something true…
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What makes it true?
Emeraldlady said:
I think that it was a real loss that that truth wasn’t highlighted by an appreciation of Amazonian religious expression at the Synod… The whole event could have been a teaching moment such as St Paul used with the pagan Greeks.
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The biggest difference is that St. Paul taught the Greeks to leave their errors and practices behind, because they were an impediment to their understanding of the True God.

Some within the Amazon synod were trying to incorporate the Amazonian beliefs and practices as a way to be respectful of their cultural beliefs. Hence the whole pachamama scandal and the misguided view that allowed an idol (demon) to be placed inside one of our Churches.
 
There is only one true religion , the one revealed amd established by God. The Catholic Church.

All other religions are false , as they were not revealed by God. However , these false religions contain a mixture of truth and false.

What ever is true in them, is either a truth of natural reason, or a truth that was taken from the Catholic Church.

So while you may find some truth in false religions, the truth didnt originate from the false religion.
 
Only Satan would come up with the completely illogical notion - that “all religions are true” ?
 
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EndTimes said:
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Crusader13:
What makes it true?
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What makes what true? That all religions are true?
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Apologies, I think I misunderstood what you were saying.
EndTimes said:
Only Satan would come up with the completely illogical notion - that “all religions are true” ?
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This cleared it up.
 
Can we also acknowledge that no religion can exhaustively articulates the complete truth?
 
The Jews are God’s chosen people.
Christians are chosen by Christ.
And in Islam it says, Allah chooses whom he wills.

If Jews and Muslims are chosen by the same God, am I then expected to convert them to Catholicism? We are all created by the same God, the same God hears all our prayers despite our differences.

I think the most we can hope for is that we change ourselves.
 
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