LETTERS

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 13, 2000

Editor's note: Because of the volume of letters received in reaction to Our coverage of the Vatican document, Dominus Iesus (NCR, Sept. 15), we have dedicated the entire Letters space this week to that subject. We trimmed some letters more than usual in order to hear from as many as possible and to include the widest variety of ideas.

Dominus Iesus continued

* Just when I believed the Roman Catholic bureaucratic institution reached the nadir of theological sensitivity and philosophical awareness, Ratzinger produces one more surprise. Not only do his words test the faith of any theistic believer, they betray the trust of any educated human person in religious institutions that exceed the borders of a neighborhood community. Such political posturing in a cyber-knit world implies that the Roman church is rushing headlong into the 14th century.

PHILIP VERHALEN Seattle

* Please, Cardinal Ratzinger, tell me: Since my heroes Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Anwar Sadat, Mahatma Gandhi, et al, were not Catholic, where are they now?

JERRY MAZENKO Garden Grove, Calif.

* I would appreciate any theologian commenting on this selection from Mark and its relationship to Dominus Iesus: "John said to him [Jesus], `Teacher, we saw a man who was driving out demons in your name, and we told him to stop, because he doesn't belong to our group.' `Do not try to stop him,' Jesus told them, `because no one who performs a miracle in my name will be able soon afterward to say evil things about me. For whoever is not against us is for us. I assure you that anyone who gives you a drink of water because you belong to me will certainly receive his reward.'"

Sounds to me like Jesus is a little more tactful, hopeful and loving than what we recently witnessed when Dominus Iesus appeared.

JAMES I. MULLIGAN Sacramento, Calif.

* The Vatican concerns itself with documents on rubrical minutiae and the superiority of Catholicism. Do dogmatic statements and hierarchical order help us to love God more and to work passionately to relieve the world's pain?

Let us get real!

(Sr.) ROSE TILLEMANS Minneapolis

* Now is a made-for-prime-time opportunity to squeeze in Fr. Feeney as another candidate for canonization. He was the champion of the hallowed doctrine of exclusion, "outside the church no salvation." His patronage for cramping dialogue would be assured.

BILL PICARD Brecksville, Ohio

* After reading Dominus Iesus, I find myself wondering, why the fuss? After stating that Jesus is the unique savior and the Roman Catholic church is the unique bearer of that truth, Ratzinger goes on to qualify it by saying: "This doctrine must be set against the universal salvific will of God; it is necessary to keep these two truths together, namely, the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind [surely he meant humankind] and the necessity of the church for salvation."

This seems to say that the church is the unique instrument for salvation, except when it isn't!

Perhaps the real core of the document is in the statement: "God bestows it [the salvific grace of God] in ways known to himself." The paragraph concludes by saying, "Theologians are seeking to understand this question more fully."

I suggest that when theologians understand the ways God knows to himself, they should revisit the equally complex question of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. This should keep them busy for the next millennium or two.

LARRY BOUDREAU San Antonio

* Cardinal Ratzinger should remove himself from the dense walls that surround him and find out what is going on in our universe by reading Brian Swimme's The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos. Swimme says, regarding human death, "We suffer anxieties over whether or not our personal deaths will result in extinction of our selves while remaining deeply certain that the reality of the atoms making up our bodies will continue long past our deaths." I cannot imagine the Old One, as Swimme calls the creator, standing around asking all those atoms whether they came from a Hindu, Muslim or other religious person. Can you?

HUBERTINE MOG Wilson, Kan.

* I doubt the Dalai Lama will rush to the baptismal font in consequence of being told that his religion is "gravely deficient." Nor do I foresee an influx of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. With Catholics making up less than 20 percent of the world's population, it is inconceivable that God is not personally present in the remaining 80 percent of humanity.

In the dying words of the protagonist of Georges Bernanos' novel, The Diary of a Country Priest: "Does it matter? Grace is everywhere."

ANDREW VAN GROLL Trinidad, Calif.

* The week after I read about the Vatican's concerns about giving too much acceptance to what place other Christians and other religions may have in God's plan, what gifts God may have given them, came the Sunday readings from Numbers and Mark about God acting on and with people who did not seem to be with the "chosen" company. I wonder what the makers of Vatican rules and documents make of these words?