It seems your issue is with the Catholic Church and her teaching on our relationship with Muslims.
This “SJW”? Given the way you’re using this abbreviation, it sure sounds like a “put down” and a “negative judgement.” A parent in the class was disturbed by this reading – and I would be too. In an era in which we’re being inundated with the message that all Muslims are violent, in support of terrorism or terrorists themselves, and a threat to our way of living, it seems exceptionally inappropriate to ignore the comments of the past four pontiffs and instead seek out a reading that disparages an entire people.
Have read anything from the post Christian Jews? Apparently calling the Holy Virgin a word which I am not going to say, saying that our Lord in boiling in human byproducts, and that we are not human sits well with you.
Your justification for disparaging all Jews is your belief that Christians have been disparaged by some Jews? :ehh:
So tolerance trumps blasphemy?
All purely human statements are time-conditioned. St. John Chrysostom’s statements were made at a time when there was much antagonism between Christians and Jews. I think most Christians recognize that his speech was sometimes immoderate. The same might apply to St. John Bosco’s statments on Islam. However, I would submit more has changed between Jews and Christians since Chrysostom’s time than has between Muslims and Christians since St. John Bosco’s time. But that being said, I don’t see that propagating Bosco’s comments on Islam to schoolchilrden is helpful.
That’s a non sequitur. Try again.
I appreciate your taking the time to make such a thorough post.
Second, your claim that recent popes have only told us to respect individuals and not the religion of Islam itself seems to be untrue. Take for example the words of Popes Paul VI
and John Paul II:
Thank you for your thoughtful response, Jesucated. To your first point, I’d still like to know exactly which portions of the materials passed out were not in line with the Church’s teaching. Which teachings are contradicted? Keep in mind, he posted what St. John Bosco wrote verbatim. I ask sincerely, not facetiously, where does St. John pits himself against the constant teaching of the Church. I still have not seen any substantial evidence that the action of the teacher was inappropriate or wrong, but again, I do believe he may have acted imprudently.
This comes from section 107 of the encyclical, found here. The translation of the citation you provided appears to be different from the official translation on the Vatican’s website. I’ll post that part of the translation (bolded), with more of the section included for context, my emphases in italics. It pretty much mirrors what is said in the Catechism:
We can see here that Bl. Paul is making it known that we should admire Muslims insofar that they worship, the one true God, but makes it clear we should be admiring “the people”. I’m not sure why the USCCB translated that section the way they did on their site. Also, notice that Bl. Paul also instructs us to not take an uncritical attitude towards Islam. St. John Bosco may have been overly critical in some people’s eyes, but it’s clear that Bl. Paul doesn’t want us to be indifferent to the errors in Islam, which St. John did lucidly point out.
This comes from section five of an address to world representatives St. John Paul gave in a pastoral visit to Kazakhstan back in 2001. What "context is St. John Paul speaking of? Basically, the same context that Bl. Paul, and many popes have put it in. Let’s back up a bit and see what context St. John Paul is putting this respect in:
So in the context of attributing to God, the values of love and justice, St. John Paul exhorts us to respect Islam in also being a religion that attributes these things to God. Again, call to mind that quote I provided from Ven. Sheen. Let’s look and see what the rest of the sentence from your selection says, the original part bolded:
We respect those parts of Islam which pray to the Abrahamic God, to the part that helps the needy. But what St. John Paul provides us is not a wholesale respect for the religion of Islam. How can we wholly respect a religion that denies the divinity of Christ explicitly?
It’s interesting because Judaism also denies the divinity of Christ (as does I think Jehovah’s Witnesses & Mormonism). But we’ve got to respect Judaism in that the Jewish people through thick and thin, sometimes backsliding somewhat, kept their faith in the God of Abraham, the One and Only God, despite severe persecution…keeping up until the time of Christ.
Sort of reminds me of how St. Paul used the statue of the Unknown God to introduce Christianity to the Greeks.It is interesting, and I absolutely agree with you. Keep in mind, Judaism is different from all other religions in relation to Christianity. They are called our forefathers in the Faith, and I have a deep respect for them, as all Catholics and non-Catholic Christians should have. There’s a good book out from Ignatius Press called “Salvation Is From the Jews”. It shows how Judaism is an integral and essential component of Christianity. Because really, what is Christianity but Judaism perfected? With the inauguration of the New Covenant, we’ve been given a new and superior relationship with God than what was afforded in Judaism under the Old Covenant. But we have much to learn from our Jewish brothers and sisters.
I totally agree with you. That’s why I approvingly cited Ven. Sheen’s words on the subject. However, as Bl. Paul reminds us, that doesn’t mean we become uncritical or indifferent to other religions like Islam. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing Islam in certain areas, as long as we do so charitably. When necessary, we must speak up about the errors these religions teach, and “declare openly our conviction that the Christian religion is the one and only true religion.” Like you said, that doesn’t mean being obnoxious about it or bringing it up for no good reason. But when the need arrives, we must confidently declare Christianity’s (specifically, Catholicism’s) superiority over all other religions. Until that need arrives, we should continue to live out the Gospel in the actions of our daily lives.
I later thought about how sometimes it is fine to preach hellfire and damnation (against another religion or sinful behavior)…but it takes a certain person with certain qualities to do so effectively so as to convert people and not turn them off or create great strife and conflict.
You mean someone like, say, St. John Bosco?
Precisely my point. They won’t, so they will catch flak. They probably just didn’t want to deal with the complaints and as usual, it is easier to throw one man under the bus without specifics than to either defend him, or apologize and cite what they took issue with. Was is deviating off of curriculum? Age inappropriate materials? Disagreeing with the words of St. John Bosco? They will likely never say.
