If I may make some points, in all charity.
We have no evidence that Jesus spent any time with people of other faiths discussing religion and religious differences, indeed this would contradict what Christ said where he said '
And he answering, said: I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel’ Matthew Chapter 15:24
Yes Jesus did speak to those of other faiths, such as the Samaritan woman (though they were an offshoot from the jews and in that conversation he corrected her) and the centurion, but in these cases he corrects their error or praises their faith, which in the case of the centurion was praising the centurions faith in him.
Reading our current obsession with ‘ecumenicism’ and ‘dialogue’ back into history is anachronism plain and simple.
Jesus’ discussion with the jewish priests and keepers of the law was again driven by the need to proclaim the truth and correct errors, not dialogue for the sake of dialogue.
This obsession with the dialogue amongst many in the modern church is exactly what has helped foster situations like the one in belgium and austria at the moment and france and the netherlands during much of the 60’s-90’s. Dialogue is not an absolute good, it is a relative good depending on the aim it is subordinated to, dialogue with other faiths and branches of christianity is ultimately a dialogue with error. In that case the only legitimate aim can be to convert those who are in error back to the truth, to suggest that the church can learn something from error is blasphemous in as much as it suggests that the church is not '
The pillar and foundation of the truth’ *1 Timothy 3:15 *and '
the spotless bride of Christ’ Ephesians 5:27. It suggests that the church must look outside of itself for part of the truth or to improve itself both of which contradict the above truths of faith.
If those in error are obstinate, we must then condemn them in order to protect the Church from them and entrust them to Gods mercy. In terms of baptised christians, this can take the form of excommunication and other eclessiastical censures. Mere dialogue will never suffice, as some people as so deeply set in their errors that they will not change their minds and thus condemnation and punishment, in the interests of justice and mercy are required. Indeed the church continously hopes that those excommunicated or otherwise censured will retract their errors and come back to embrace their loving and faithful mother. This is in fact what the church has done since the beginning, every ecumenical council from nicea to Vatican I contained canons which declared anathemas or excommunications. The Church still practices this today
catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican_supports_excommunication_of_call_to_action_group/
St Thomas Aquinas speaking on the subject says this '**It seems that heretics ought to be tolerated…
On the contrary, The Apostle says (Titus 3:10-11): “A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid: knowing that he, that is such an one, is subverted.”
I answer that, With regard to heretics two points must be observed: one, on their own side; the other, on the side of the Church. …
On the part of the Church, however, there is mercy which looks to the conversion of the wanderer, wherefore she condemns not at once, but “after the first and second admonition,” as the Apostle directs: after that, if he is yet stubborn, the Church no longer hoping for his conversion, looks to the salvation of others, by excommunicating him and separating him from the Church, and furthermore delivers him to the secular tribunal to be exterminated thereby from the world by death. For Jerome commenting on Galatians 5:9, “A little leaven,” says: “Cut off the decayed flesh, expel the mangy sheep from the fold, lest the whole house, the whole paste, the whole body, the whole flock, burn, perish, rot, die. Arius was but one spark in Alexandria, but as that spark was not at once put out, the whole earth was laid waste by its flame.”
**
and later he states '**According to Decret. (xxiv, qu. iii, can. Notandum), “to be excommunicated is not to be uprooted.” A man is excommunicated, as the Apostle says (1 Corinthians 5:5) that his “spirit may be saved in the day of Our Lord.” **
Both these quotes are from the Summa, second part of the second part, Question 11, Article 3.
The solution to this problem is to ‘
to call back the mutinous and the wandering to the bosom of the Church’
Pope Leo XIII ‘Christi Nomen’ and if after dialogue, that is showing them why their errors are wrong, they still refuse, eclessiastical censure whether it be excommunication or something less severe. The church has tolerated manifest heresies such as these for far too long in the interest of false charity and ecumenicism.
