Peace prayer is wrong?

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jesusmademe

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Why are people against a pope praying with together with non-catholics. The three last popes, I think, has held official meetings to pray for peace. Why would anyone be against it? I mean, it is very different from taking part in rituals of other religions. Who know what weird view of God a catholics has. Then we must be against a pope praying with catholics. Everything becomed absurd.
What to make of this?
 
Most of us aren’t against an ecumenical prayer for peace.

Some people do object when the Catholic Church, especially the sanctuary, is used for non-Catholic and even non-Christian prayers, such as putting a Buddha on the tabernacle. This is a reasonable objection, to me.

A few people who have bias against Muslims or some other group might object to the Pope praying with them.
 
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So only “traditional” catholics are?
 
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I don’t think “traditional” Catholics are a monolith. Some probably object and some don’t. They do have a general tendency to dislike our current Pope, so if he does something they will object more than if Pope Benedict did it.
 
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There’s nothing per se wrong with it when it comes to people who acknowledge the one God. It would be seriously wrong to invite someone to direct prayer to idols and other false deities that should be going to God (just like it would be wrong to invite anyone to commit an objective sin).

Assuming we’re not encouraging idolatry, the real problem is that of scandal from appearances. St. Thomas describes it as follows:
Thus, for instance, if a man were to “sit at meat in the idol’s temple” (1 Corinthians 8:10), though this is not sinful in itself, provided it be done with no evil intention, yet, since it has a certain appearance of evil, and a semblance of worshipping the idol, it might occasion another man’s spiritual downfall. Hence the Apostle says (1 Thessalonians 5:22): “From all appearance of evil refrain yourselves.”
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The images of these events can easily give the appearance of religious indifferentism and relativism and convey the idea that one religion is as good as another–to imply a unity that does not exist. That’s the reason the Church has pretty consistently forbidden such things over the centuries.
 
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Who are we to trust then? Some against and some for. This applies to Priests as well.
 
I see.
I have heard that we all have idols. In my case it could be a false view of Christ. This is why am not against such prayer meetings. What are your thoughts?
 
Whether the Pope says an ecumenical prayer with a Muslim isn’t part of our deposit of faith. It’s not necessary to be concerned about it.

I would prefer to pray with other religions as opposed to us shooting at each other. I can always throw in a secret prayer asking God to convert the people of the other faith.
 
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Genesis315 said:
The images of these events can easily give the appearance of religious indifferentism and relativism and convey the idea that one religion is as good as another–to imply a unity that does not exist.
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We are commanded to love and pray for our enemies as well as friends. So I don’t see the problem with praying with them for peace.
 
Eric_Hyom said:
We are commanded to love and pray for our enemies as well as friends. So I don’t see the problem with praying with them for peace.
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But doing so in a way that engendered indifferentism or syncretism would not be love, because those things are directly opposed to man’s supernatural good.

Again, this kind of thing was pretty universally not permitted until very recently because of that danger. We didn’t just discover charity. Maybe there was something to that. At the very least, there are real reasons to be cautious about such events.
 
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Genesis315 said:
But doing so in a way that engendered indifferentism or syncretism would not be love, because those things are directly opposed to man’s supernatural good.
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I am so pleased the Catholic diocese of Christchurch NZ, is taking part in an interfaith prayer service for those killed recently. Sometimes we have to show our solidarity for those who are suffering.
 
Christ spent his last hours before the Passion praying that we would all be one. Anything I can do to help in the tiniest bit to be part of the answer of that prayer, I will do.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
It would be a very appropriate and kind thing to pray together in that situation.
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If it seems right to pray together in times of grief, are there other times when it would also be appropriate to pray together?
 
For any shared community need, such as peace, relief for the local poor, greater understanding between people, etc.

But not in such a way that Catholics are suggesting all religions are the same or that it doesn’t matter if you are part of the Catholic Parish or the Protestant church, Orthodox church, Jewish synagogue, Islamic mosque etc. Usually the cleric for the other faith will also be sensitive to this.

Therefore you probably wouldn’t want to have common prayer right before Sunday Mass every week as a regular thing. It sends the wrong message.
 
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Ioannes_L said:
Oh yes, we’re the Big Bad Wolf in the Church, responsible for and accusable of everything.
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I tried to resist, but don’t seem to be able to . . .

We built our church of bricks, nyah-nyah. 😱:crazy_face:🤣
 
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