Evangelization and Truth
Evangelization and Truth | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | Homiletic & Pastoral Review | October 2008
The Christian spirit has always been animated by a passion to lead all humanity to Christ in the Church.
“Today, however, with ever-increasing frequency, questions are being raised about the legitimacy of presenting to others—so that they might in turn accept it—that which is held to be true for oneself. Often this is seen as an infringement on other people’s freedom. Such a vision of human freedom, separated from its integral reference to truth, is one of the expressions ‘of that relativism which, recognizing nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires and under the semblance of freedom, becomes a prison for each one.’”—William Cardinal Levada, “On Some Aspects of Evangelization,” #4. [1]
“The loving providence of God determined that in the last days he would aid the world, set on its course to destruction. He ordered that all nations should be saved in Christ.” [2]
—Pope St. Leo the Great, †A.D. 461, Epiphany Sermon.
“The Christian spirit has always been animated by a passion to lead all humanity to Christ in the Church. The incorporation of new members into the Church is not the expansion of a power-group, but rather entrance into the network of friendship with Christ which connects heaven and earth, different continents and ages.” —“On Some Aspects of Evangelization,” #9.
Four days after the encyclical Spe Salvi was issued on November 29, 2007, the Feast of St. Andrew, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a relatively short “note” on evangelization. Significantly, this latter day, December 3, was the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, the patron of the missions. Before he died, Xavier sought to enter China to evangelize it. Both Paul VI and John Paul II previously had addressed major documents to the topic of evangelization.[3] This present document was approved by the “Sovereign Pontiff in the audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect on October 6, 2007.”
The note does not mention several earlier decisions of the congregation on specific writers whose works have been examined and criticized because of doctrinal theories that cast doubt on the need for any “missionary” activities toward non-believers or non-Catholics. These errors generally deny any need for the Church in the work of salvation. They elevate other religions or philosophies by implying that these provide by their rites and doctrines that which the Church promises. Often, too, they shift salvation from a transcendent destiny for each person to this-world “missionary” work. Salvation becomes some future kingdom or ideological movement within space and time. The salvation of each individual soul as its own drama within the Church is reduced to participation in some collective—usually social justice-based—movement down the ages.
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