How is this to be interpreted?

[LeonardDeNoblac]

In his encyclical Redemptor Humanis, Pope Saint John Paul II wrote “Does it not sometimes happen that the firm belief of the followers of the non-Christian religions - a belief that is also an effect of the Spirit of truth operating outside the visible confines of the Mystical Body - can make Christians ashamed at being often themselves so disposed to doubt concerning the truths revealed by God and proclaimed by the Church and so prone to relax moral principles and open the way to ethical permissiveness?”. Does it refer just to the religious sense - the natural tendency towards God - innate in every man, even in non-christian religions? Because it can’t be about the specific teachings of non-christian religions, like some sedevacantists suggest.
What do you think?

 

[whatistrue]

so the average parishioner can understand

But isn’t the target audience normally bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, and primates? And traditionally in Latin? Doesn’t sound to me like they are intended to be easily read in the original by the average parishioner.

 

[Vico]

Redemptor Humanis

Just before the quote you posted St. John Paul II writes:

What we have just said must also be applied-although in another way and with the due differences-to activity for coming closer together with the representatives of the non-Christian religions, an activity expressed through dialogue, contacts, prayer in common, investigation of the treasures of human spirituality, in which, as we know well, the members of these religions also are not lacking.

He is clear that the firm belief of the followers of non-Christian religions is an effect of the Spirit of truth. In comparison to the good examples of non-Christians, Christians may be ashamed of their own doubts and laxity. He is clear that “It is a noble thing to have a predisposition for understanding every person, analyzing every system and recognizing what is right”.

God gives all the actual grace of conversion and has put a conscience in all rational souls.

 

[TheLittleLady]

“Does it not sometimes happen that the firm belief of the followers of the non-Christian religions - a belief that is also an effect of the Spirit of truth operating outside the visible confines of the Mystical Body - can make Christians ashamed at being often themselves so disposed to doubt concerning the truths revealed by God and proclaimed by the Church and so prone to relax moral principles and open the way to ethical permissiveness?”.

CCC 838 - 848 may be of help.

I’d boil this down to saying “We ought to be ashamed that we pooh-pooh the truths taught by the Church while there are non-Christians who actually GET and accept these truths”.

 

[Emeraldlady]

A specific practice of non Christians Pope John Paul II identified was the ancestor worship of animists. In his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope he writes…

At this point, it seems opportune to recall all the primitive religions, the Animist type of religion , which puts first emphasis on the worship of their ancestors. It seems that those who practice it are particularly close to Christianity. Among them the missionaries of the Church more easily find a common language.

Is there, perhaps, in this veneration of the ancestors a kind of preparation for the Christian belief in the communion of saints, wherein all believers - whether living or dead - form a single community, a single body? Faith in the communion of the saints is, ultimately, faith in Christ, the only source of life and holiness for all.

There is nothing strange, then, in the fact that the African and Asian animists would become confessors of Christ more easily than followers of the great religions of the Far East .

 

[LeonardDeNoblac]

Are you talking to @Emeraldlady?

 

[LeonardDeNoblac]

Ah, ok then, even because I don’t remember having supported paganism in the past