Inter-faith prayers

[MaximilianK]

I saw Pope Francis had prayers with Muslim or something like that. Is that correct? There are a lot of optinions, V2 speculation, from different Popes and Saints, and scholars, how we understand the right version?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

There is nothing wrong or amiss with the Pope, or any other Catholic, having some ecumenical prayers with Muslims or anyone else from another faith, perhaps with the condition that the other faith worships the same God that we do. We have ecumenical prayer services all the time. It is good for us to try to find common ground with other religions, and if Catholics and the other religion worship the same God (as the Catechism says that Catholics and Muslims do), then praying with them is a common ground.

Your question is very broad. Was there a specific “opinion” by a Pope or saint you were concerned about? Or are you just concerned that the Pope is having prayers with Muslims?

 

[MaximilianK]

A lots of Popes say no pray to heretics. Fr. Maximilian Kolbe aslo have this view on ecumenism. Also apostolic canons say no pray with heretics, heretics, mulsim are not only heretics. You know, if Thomas Aquinas or Augustine could see this things what happened today… probably could have not same opinion like you…

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Please provide the exact quotations/ source from Fr. Maximilian Kolbe saying that we should not pray with “heretics”.

Your reference to St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine are not specific enough to understand your concern.

God guides His church. If he feels that it is a good thing for the Pope to pray with Muslims at this point, he will so guide the Pope to do so. Furthermore, it seems like Pope Francis is working for peace between Christians and Muslims and to build bridges with them. These are good things to do as a better understanding will hopefully result in less conflict and violence between Christians and Muslims who live close together.

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/01/08/popes-outreach-to-islamic-world-in-2019-has-deep-roots/

 

[MaximilianK]

This is the best known option on Ecumenism “There is no greater enemy of the Immaculata and her Knighthood than today’s Ecumenism which every Knight must not only fight against, but also neutralize through diametrically opposed action and ultimately destroy” (Saint Maksymilian Maria Kolbe). And we know that ecumenism against which -fight against- is saying referring to Christan gathering, what we can say about Muslim gathering… Is clear and we can deduce that Father Maximilian is totally against.

How can during the time the dogmatic and the spirit of father’s can be changed? This is my question. Is here (in this praying with muslim) a kind of eikonomia? We hava same God with Muslim, really this is true, I think this is true for a weak mind, or we must use this kind of church politics to achieve peace, but we not apostate doing this things?!

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Yes, I’ve noticed that many seem to like to seize on that quote, taken out of context, in order to condemn any sort of friendly or prayerful interaction that we have with people of other faiths.

St. Maximilian Kolbe grew up during a time of great anti-Catholicism, much of which was coming from the Freemasons and/or atheistic Communists. Both groups were trying to destroy the Church. The Freemasons held huge rallies, basically hating on Catholics, which St. Maximilian witnessed. This is what St. Maximilian was concerned with, not with building friendly relations with other groups in hopes of living together in peace.

As has been noted by EWTN, OSV and other publications, St. Maximilian was speaking in the context of his time, when other religions were seriously and openly hostile to the Catholic faith, and not to our current day when we seek a deeper understanding and appreciation of other traditions.

https://www.ewtn.com/library/answers/kolanti.htm

I could just as easily bring up anti-Semitic homilies of St. Bernardine or polemics against the Muslims from the eras of the Crusades…different era. Hopefully everyone, including the Muslims as well as the Catholics, have evolved.

 

[Genesis315]

The Church forbids common prayer when there is something per se defective about the prayer (e.g. directed to an idol, heretical, etc.) or where there is a risk of scandal and indifferentism, that is witnessing against the unity of the Church or giving the impression that one religion is as good as another. In the past, the Church had general prohibitions against this, since such dangers were practically concomitant. There are more permissions now, often because such common prayer is organized for the very reason of seeking that unity (ie no one should think they mean we are already one). Personally, I think this is not made clear enough sometimes, or the risk of indifferntism is not taken enough into account, but what do I know?

There is nothing wrong or amiss with the Pope, or any other Catholic, having some ecumenical prayers with Muslims or anyone else from another faith, perhaps with the condition that the other faith worships the same God that we do. We have ecumenical prayer services all the time. It is good for us to try to find common ground with other religions, and if Catholics and the other religion worship the same God (as the Catechism says that Catholics and Muslims do), then praying with them is a common ground.

To be fair, such a prayer would not be ecumenical. We can pray in the same place for the same purposes (provided the dangers I mentioned earlier are avoided), but we can’t really pray together with non-Christians. Even Cardinal Kasper says so:

The ecumenical dialogue and the interreligious dialogue are connected and overlap, but are not identical with each other another. There is a specific, qualitative difference between them and, therefore, they should not be confused. Ecumenical dialogues are not only based on the tolerance and respect due for every human and religious conviction; nor are they founded solely on liberal philanthropy or mere polite courtesy; on the contrary, ecumenical dialogue is rooted in the common faith in Jesus Christ and the reciprocal recognition of baptism, which means that all the baptized become members of the one Body of Christ (cf. Gal 3,28); I Cor 12,13; Ut unum sint, n. 42) and can pray the"Our Father" together, as Jesus taught us. In other religions the Church recognizes a ray of that truth “that enlightens every man” (Jn 1,9), but is revealed in its fullness only in Jesus Christ; only he is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14,6; cf. Nostra aetate, n. 2). It is therefore ambiguous to refer to interreligious dialogue in terms of macro-ecumenism or of a new and vaster phase of ecumenism.

Christians and the followers of other religions can pray, but cannot pray together. Every form of syncretism is to be excluded.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/p...pc_chrstuni_doc_20020107_peace-kasper_en.html

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’m sure Pope Francis knows what he can and cannot do and be in accordance with Church teaching, and abides by that.

People will just pick on Pope Francis regardless of what he does. I would rather be praying with someone than shooting at them or vice versa.

 

[TK421]

Maximilian Kolbe was not against ecumenism as defined by the 2nd Vatican Council. This is absurd and he prayed with the Jews in the death camp for days.

 

[Genesis315]

Yeah, the “ecumenism” of his day was predicated on the principles that the unity of Christ’s Church had failed, and that the Church consisted of various separated branches which were to be reconciled and united by compromise of their differences. They sought to establish a visible Communion based on the lowest common denominator or compromises in doctrine.

A Catholic could not be a member of such an organization since its stated goals are in and of themselves contrary to the faith on two main points–that the Church is no longer one (which is not the same as saying that all the baptized lack unity among themselves) and that the unity of the Church can be re-achieved through compromise in the deposit of faith. A Catholic cannot work toward those false ends (for more on this, see the papal encyclical Mortalium Animos).

Catholic principles on ecumenism (see the concilliar decree Unitatis Redintegratio and the papal encyclical Ut Unum Sint) reject both these false ends, and instead are predicated on extending the existing Catholic unity to all the baptized in the entire truth.

 

[DebCWil]

Muslims, Jews, and Christians all pray to the one God of Abraham. We have the same roots.
We pray to the same God, and give witness to this unity to we pray together.
That does not mean there are no differences in our understanding when it comes to salvation history. Dialogue, defined by Pope Benedict XVI, as communication across differences begins when one person is willing to reach across the divide. Pope John Paul II also spoke about communicating what we have in common.
Our current pope’s namesake was able to talk to the Muslims during the middle of the Crusades. It is why the Franciscans have been able to maintain a presence in the Middle East while other orders have had difficulty.
It is true that the prayer in common with Jews and adherents of Islam would not invoke the name of Jesus Christ. I have had many discussions with my Muslim friends regarding matters of faith that we hold in common. Yes, they have asked for my prayers.
Interesting that one such friend should in humility ask for prayers “from somebody who is closer to God than he is” in a recent Facebook post. Would you not join your prayers with his?

When friends ask me to pray with them, or for them, I do not ask what denomination they belong to. What is important to me is that we worship the same God, the God of Abraham. Yes, I will pray for and with my Jewish and Muslim friends. That does not mean that I will deny who or what I believe regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It does not mean sharing Communal Cup during ecumenical services with separated brothers and sisters in Christ.

Part of my morning prayer includes a prayer for unity, as Christ prayed that all might be one regarding those of us who are baptized. Our best witness, for those you have yet to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and savior is the lives we lead.

I did live in the Gulf region for 5 years. The Catholic Church is vibrant.

 

[Eric_Hyom]

I am hopeful. A few centuries ago in the UK, Christians were killing each other, a hundred years ago, we just called each other heretics, and now we can pray with each other.

God hasn’t changed, the Bible hasn’t changed, but we are changing. I was at a Churches Together meeting today in our town we do so many things together. We have opened up two houses for the homeless, we are running a basics food bank, and we share many outreach projects together. We are also exploring ways of working in an interfaith capacity.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

Before you get too concerned about Pope Francis, you might review similar activities of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope St. John Paul II.

 

[HeDa]

it is possible to pray the Our Father with Jews and Muslims.