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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “L’Osservatore Romano” has made it possible for Agenzia Fides to publish the entire text of the speech given by Archbishop Angelo Amato, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the opening of the Academic Year 2007-2008 in the Theological Institute of Assisi. Its theme was: “The document Dominus Iesus and the other religions.” The translations into other languages was made by Agenzia Fides and have not been revised by the author.
The Declaration Dominus Iesus (2000)
Still true today, ten years later, is the statement made by the International Theological Commission in its document, Il Cristianesimo e le religioni (1997), when it said: «the theology of religions still lacks a well defined epistemological statute» («La Civiltà Cattolica», 148 (1997), I, p. 4). Whatever the case its finality is the interpretation of religions in the light of the Word of God and in the perspective of the salvific mystery of Christ and of the Church.
Among the various models proposed— substantially three: exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist — theologically plausible is the inclusivist model, suggested by the texts of Vatican II (cfr Lumen gentium, n. 16-17; Ad gentes, n. 3, 7, 8, 11, 15; Nostra aetate, n. 2; Gaudium et spes, n. 22). This model advances a Christ-centred Trinitarian horizon, with Jesus the mediator of salvation for the whole of humanity (cfr Acts of the Apostles, 4, 12; 1 Timothy, 2, 4-6). This interpretation is opposed however by the pluralist model, which, considering Christian unicity a myth, proposes a pluralist theology of religions and denies the salvific universality of Christian redemption. This model is based substantially on two ideological presuppositions: the acceptance of absolute relativism, as the only possibility for expressing the whole truth, and the admission of religious pluralism, as the only way to describe the ineffable mystery of God.
In continuity with the Second Vatican Council and with John Paul II's encyclical Redemptoris missio, the Declaration Dominus Iesus (henceforth DI) issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and made public during the Great Jubilee of the Year Two Thousand, constituted an admirable answer of the Church's Magisterium to Christian theology of religious pluralism, which, endorsing the feeble thought of post-modernity, threatened to undermine truths of faith central to Christianity.
Starting from biblical elements the Declaration reaffirms that the Church's evangelising mission is born of Jesus' explicit mandate and is continued in history through the proclamation of the mystery of the God Three in One, the mystery of the salfivic incarnation of the Son of God and the mystery of the Church, universal sacrament of salvation. These are in fact the basic contents of the Christian profession of faith contained in the Nicaean Creed, still today recited at Mass on Sundays and solemnities.
The Declaration agrees with what was affirmed by John Paul II who said that, at the end of the second Christian millennium, despite fidelity to the Gospel and perseverance in its proclamation, this universal mission is still far from completion (cfr DI n. 2). That humanity lives a plurality of religions, is a fact and another fact is that the Catholic Church, while not rejecting anything that in other religions is true and holy (Nostra aetate, 2), never fails to carry out her evangelisation mission, of which interreligious dialogue is also a part (DI n. 2).
In the practice and in the theoretical study of dialogue «The Church's constant missionary proclamation is endangered today by relativistic theories which seek to justify religious pluralism, not only de facto but also de iure (or in principle). (DI n. 4) ». And it is these theories that the Declaration addresses first of all to challenge their premises and reject their conclusions.
Therefore, we have the identification of presuppositions of both a philosophical and theological nature at the basis of pluralist attitudes: conviction of the elusiveness and the inexpressibility of divine truth, even by Christian revelation; relativistic attitudes toward truth itself, according to which what is true for some would not be true for others; radical opposition posited between the logical mentality of the West and the symbolic mentality of the East; difficulty in understanding and accepting the presence of definitive and eschatological events in history; metaphysical emptying of the historical incarnation of the Eternal Logos, reduced to a mere appearing of God in history; eclecticism of those who, in theological research, uncritically absorb ideas from a variety of philosophical and theological contexts with no regard for consistency, systematic connection, or compatibility with Christian truth; finally, the tendency to read and to interpret Sacred Scripture outside the Tradition and Magisterium of the Church. (DI n. 4).
We should explain here that the Declaration was explicitly approved by the Supreme Pontiff with a formula of special authority: «The Supreme Pontiff John Paul II (...) with sure knowledge and his apostolic authority [certa scientia et apostolica Sua auctoritate] ratified and confirmed this Declaration (...) and ordered its publication» (DI n. 23). The document has then universal magisterial validity. It is not simply a note of orientation. It re-proposes truths of divine Catholic faith and doctrinal truths to be firmly held. Hence the assent requested of the faithful of a definitive and irrevocable nature (see intervention by Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone in the «L'Osservatore Romano» 6 September 2000, Italian edition).
Indeed at the Angelus on Sunday 1 October 2000, the Holy Father explicitly reaffirmed his full approval of the Declaration: «With the Declaration Dominus Iesus - Jesus is Lord - approved by me in a special way at the height of the Jubilee Year, I wanted to invite all Christians to renew their fidelity to him in the joy of faith and to bear unanimous witness that the Son, both today and tomorrow, is "the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14: 6). Our confession of Christ as the only Son, through whom we ourselves see the Father's face (cf. Jn 14: 8), is not arrogance that disdains other religions, but joyful gratitude that Christ has revealed himself to us without any merit on our part. At the same time, he has obliged us to continue giving what we have received and to communicate to others what we have been given, since the Truth that is has been given and the Love which is God belong to all people.
With the Apostle Peter, we confess that "there is salvation in no one else" (Acts 4: 12). The Declaration Dominus Iesus, following the lead of the Second Vatican Council, shows us that this confession does not deny salvation to non-Christians, but points to its ultimate source in Christ, in whom man and God are united. God gives light to all in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation, granting them salvific grace in ways known to himself (Dominus Iesus, VI, nn. 20-21). The Document clarifies essential Christian elements, which do not hinder dialogue but show its bases, because a dialogue without foundations would be destined to degenerate into empty wordiness.» (John Paul II, Angelus 1 October 2000). (2 - continuing) (Agenzia Fides 15/2/2008; righe 96, parole 1176)
