How the Church accepts other religions truths?

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fabio_rocha

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In NOSTRA AETATE states:

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.

what’s this means?
 
People in other religions get some things right and some things wrong. The Catholic Church is only interested in correcting the wrong. As St. Augustine said:

“And therefore, if [one] wish to come over to the Church, he is made sound in those points in which he was unsound and went astray; but where he was sound in union with the Church, he is not cured, but recognized—lest in desiring to cure what is sound we should rather inflict a wound.” (On Baptism, Book 1)
 
fabio_rocha said:
In NOSTRA AETATE states:

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.

what’s this means?
Click to expand...
It means that truth and holiness is not exclusive to the Catholic Church. If a muslim man gives alms in accordance to his faith, isn’t that holiness? Isn’t that truth? It doesn’t mean other faiths are complete truths, but the truth can be found everywhere and in everything. God is in all.
 
fabio_rocha said:
In NOSTRA AETATE states:

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.

what’s this means?
Click to expand...
The Catholic Church possesses the fullness of truth. If it were to deny the truth that exists in other religions it would be denying a part of its own truth.
 
fabio_rocha said:
In NOSTRA AETATE states:

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.

what’s this means?
Click to expand...
The Buddha said, “Love others as you love yourself.” - Bhadramayakaravyakarana sutra 91.

Do you think that the Catholic Church rejects that? Do you think that it is not true and holy?

Where other religions get things right, then the Catholic Church accepts them. Where other religions get things wrong, then the Catholic Church rejects them. Wisely, it does not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

rossum
 
rossum said:
The Buddha said, “Love others as you love yourself.” - Bhadramayakaravyakarana sutra 91.

Do you think that the Catholic Church rejects that? Do you think that it is not true and holy?

Where other religions get things right, then the Catholic Church accepts them. Where other religions get things wrong, then the Catholic Church rejects them. Wisely, it does not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

rossum
Click to expand...
Exactly. 👍
 
It means there is room for invincible ignorance, period. Salvation is through the Church alone, which in turn is the mystical body of Christ. Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation. For those who are not formally and visibly members of the Church, salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church, but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation.

To go beyond this and claim that anything other than Christ can bring salvation is just erroneous.
 
It means even if Charles Manson said 2+2=4 it would still be true. Point being, truth is truth no matter the source. Of course the fullness of divine revelation subsists in the Catholic Church, the body of Christ perpetuated on earth, through which is the only way to salvation. 🙂
 
Previously the Church’s official statements about other religions had been pretty much confined to pointing out their errors, often in a very emphatic way. This was nevcessary to prevent people being misled, but it had given some people the false impression that they had to reject EVERYTHING that is taught by other religions. This statement was intended to correct that false impression.

Unfortunately many people today have gone to the opposite extreme and seem to think that every religion is an equally good route to salvation for its followers as God’s own true Church is for her members. This is very wrong. The Catholic Church is God reaching down to man. All other religions are man reaching up to God, and not quite making it, although the beliefs of other religions often** reflect** a ray of that Truth which is found in its fulness only in the Catholic Church founded by God Himself.
 
fabio_rocha said:
In NOSTRA AETATE states:

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.

what’s this means?
Click to expand...
Truth is objective. Christian communities that teach that Christ is divine are teaching a truth. Non-Christian religions that teach that Jesus is holy are teaching a truth. They may also teach significant error, but there still is truth mixed in.

Only the Catholic Church teaches the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (so help us God!).
 
Everything that is holy and true in other religions already exists (in substance, not necessarily in little accidental details) in the Catholic Church. Therefore of course the Church does not reject these elements that other religions may share with Her. She does reject the evils and errors which are generally mixed with elements of truth in other religions, and calls all men to the fullness of Truth.
 
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