Father Stephen Freeman has spoken of some of the
effects of Muslim thought on Roman Catholic theology and more in his aforementioned
essay:
Most
modern Christians are unaware of the contacts and debates between Christianity
(particularly in the West) and Islam (particularly in Spain) during
the Middle Ages. A great deal of the learning in early European Universities,
especially in the model of scholasticism, owed much to the encounter with Islam
scholasticism – this was especially so for the work with Aristotelean
philosophy. Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars, such as Thomas Aquinas,
Moses Maimonides, and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), are foundational for Medieval
thought. (Averroes is sometimes called the “Founding Father of Western
secularism“). But the rationalist movement represented by these schools had
lasting effects in the Christian West – not all for the best.
And most know something of the wars between
Catholics and Muslims (like the Crusades) over the hundredyears.
But given all that, there is a new wrinkle in Catholic-Muslim
relations, an ecumenical wrinkle, which is driving us towards the one world
religion of Antichrist. Michael Snyder
says this of the current Pope, Francis I:
What
Pope Francis had to say at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan has received very little coverage
by the mainstream media, but it was exceedingly significant. The
following is how he began his address…
I
would like to express two sentiments for my Muslim brothers and sisters:
Firstly, my greetings as they celebrate the feast of sacrifice. I would have
wished my greeting to be warmer. My sentiments of closeness, my sentiments of
closeness in the face of tragedy. The tragedy that they suffered in Mecca.
In
this moment, I give assurances of my prayers. I unite myself with you all. A prayer to almighty god, all merciful.
He
did not choose those words by accident. In Islam, Allah is known as “the
all-merciful one”. If you doubt this, just do a Google search.
And
this is not the first time Pope Francis has used such language. For instance,
the following comes from remarks that he made during his
very first ecumenical meeting as Pope…
I
then greet and cordially thank you all, dear friends belonging to other
religious traditions; first of all
the Muslims, who worship the one God, living and merciful, and call upon Him in
prayer, and all of you. I really appreciate your presence: in
it I see a tangible sign of the will to grow in mutual esteem and cooperation
for the common good of humanity.
The
Catholic Church is aware of the importance of promoting friendship and respect
between men and women of different religious traditions – I wish to repeat
this: promoting friendship and respect between men and women of different
religious traditions – it also attests the valuable work that the Pontifical
Council for interreligious dialogue performs.
Pope
Francis clearly believes that Christians and Muslims worship the exact same
God. And so that helps to explain why he authorized “Islamic
prayers and readings from the Quran” at the Vatican for the first time ever
back in 2014.
Source: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/moving-toward-a-one-world-government-a-one-world-economy-and-a-one-world-religion,
posted 18 Oct. 2015, accessed 12 Nov. 2015
This identification of the Roman Catholic God with
the God of Islam is not entirely new, however.
The participants at Vatican II and Pope John Paul II did much the same
thing:
Interreligious
dialogue gathered momentum after the Second Vatican Council that dedicated to
it a Declaration entitled Nostra Aetate which deals with non-Christian
religions. This Declaration states: "Throughout history even to the
present day, there is found among different peoples a certain awareness of a
hidden power, which lies behind the course of nature and the events of human
life. At times there is present even a recognition of a supreme being, or still
more of a Father".35 However, it stops at Hinduism, Buddhism,
Judaism and Islam. Lacking time, I limit myself to saying a word about Islam
and Judaism.
I.
Islam
The
Declaration Nostra Aetate says above all that "the Church has also
a high regard for Muslims. They worship God, who is one, living and subsistent,
merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to
men. They strive to submit themselves without reserve to the hidden decrees of
God, just as Abraham submitted himself to God's plan, to whose faith Muslims
eagerly link their own. Although not acknowledging him as God, they venerate
Jesus as a prophet; his virgin Mother they also honour, and even at times
devoutly invoke. Further, they await the day of judgment and the reward of God
following the resurrection of the dead. For this reason they highly esteem an
upright life and worship God, especially by way of prayer, alms-deeds and fasting".
The
Council goes even further and "pleads with all to forget the past, and
urges that a sincere effort be made to achieve mutual understanding; for the
benefit of all men, let them together preserve and promote peace, liberty,
social justice and moral values"."
A.
Applying Vatican Council II
John
Paul II has made it his duty to apply the recommendations of the Second Vatican
Council. In 1988, he raised the Secretariat for Non-Christians, which Paul VI
had created in 1964, to the rank of Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Pastor
Bonus defines the competence of this Council in these terms: "The
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue fosters and supervises relations
with members and groups of non-Christian religions as well as with those who are
in any way endowed with religious feeling" (n. 159).
In
his Pastoral Visits, the Pope has always been eager to make contact with Muslim
figures and groups. He has even visited Muslim Countries and been unsparing in
his teaching through which he insists on the peaceful coexistence of Muslims
and Christians. Lastly, he has always behaved respectfully to Muslims. Nor has
he ever failed to stress the common roots that originally linked Judaism and
Christianity.
B.
Messages at time of Ramadan
Since
1979, a year after entering his office as the common Father of all the
faithful, John Paul II spoke to the Bishops of North Africa meeting in Rome at an ordinary
Assembly in the spring. He said: "Christians and Muslims could take it
upon themselves in today's world to bear a public witness of their faith in God
the Creator and Master of history. . .
.”
Source: Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, ‘Ecumenism
in the Pontificate of John Paul II’, https://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/ECUMENSM.HTM,
10 Dec. 2003, accessed 12 Nov. 2015
Those in the Souð who are weary of the
make-it-up-as-you-go version of Christianity that Protestantism offers have
been attracted by Roman Catholicism, and this is easy to understand. It appears to offer a long, stable,
uninterrupted tradition that could shelter them from the storms of
Modernity. But sadly the Roman Catholic
Church itself is a distortion of the original and unchanging Faith of the
Orthodox Church, introducing new teachings on the Holy Trinity (the Filioque),
papal supremacy, purgatory, the Mother of God (the Immaculate Conception), and
so on; and now adding to them, as we have just seen, a new teaching on the
kinship of the Muslim and Roman Catholic Gods.
The South’s rest will only be found in the Orthodox
Church, the Church of the first thousand years of Christian Europe’s history,
the Church of our Holy Mothers and Fathers in the Faith - Sts Martin of Tours,
Hilda of Whitby, Brigid of Kildare, Clement (Willibrord) of Germany, and so
many glorious others. May she hasten to
them in that holy and fair Haven!
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