Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
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.
Witness and Mission ad gentes
Dialogue can never replace proclamation of Christ, but it should illuminate it with three spiritual talents proper to the Christian faith: the truth of revelation, the freedom of the human conscience, the charity of every Christian witness.
We will develop this last aspect. It must be admitted that no few people today consider missio ad gentes a lack of respect towards the other religions. Therefore they consider no longer practicable the missionary mandate of Christ (cfr Matthew, 28, 19). It is sufficient to have dialogue or human cooperation, without any call to conversion to faith in Christ through baptism.
Today Christians should limit themselves to offering witness, personal or community, or only dialogue, without any attempt to announce Christ and his Gospel. These affirmations are quite diffused due to an insufficient interpretation of freedom, which leads to the conviction that it is illegitimate to propose to others what we consider true and just for ourselves.
In actual fact freedom cannot be separated from the truth. The fact that there exist different religious proposals does not mean that de iure they are all equally true. The quest for the truth and above all the religious truth, constitutes a qualifying element of the human person, since the truth illuminates and guides the meaning of life giving it authenticity and value. Certainly the truth of Christian revelation accepted with faith cannot and should not be imposed by force, but in freedom and absolute respect for the conscience of the other person. However a Christian cannot be prejudicially prevented from witnessing to his faith, explaining it and proposing it to others with charity and freedom. It is a matter of a legitimate proposal and a real service which the Christian offers others.
On this anthropological basis, therefore, missio ad gentes responds not only to a correct epistemology of interreligious dialogue, but also to a correct understanding of freedom and of respect for others. Evangelisation is an opportunity for the non Christian to know and to open with all freedom to the truth of Christ and his Gospel.
This has been the attitude of the Church since the day of Pentecost, when she announced the Gospel to all peoples and nations in charity, freedom and truth, calling them to conversion and baptism.
Sharing one's faith corresponds also to the desire of every person to share his possessions and moral and spiritual riches with others. Surrounded by many men and women who do not know Christ, the Christian feels it is his duty to offer them the truth of his faith with an attitude of total gratuitousness. His announcement of conversion to Christ, is none other than the same call Jesus addresses continually to Christians and non Christians: «Convert your hearts and believe in the Gospel» (Mark, 1, 15).
All missionary activity derives from a desire to share with others the love of God, Three in One. Francis of Assisi was the witness who combined his fidelity to following Christ sequela Christi with intimate conviction of missio ad gentes, taking part in a crusade (1217-1221) banned by Innocent III. Contrary to what we might think today, Francis considered the crusade «with the eyes of the Christian of his day, and of the pauper, the helpless, those who, unlike the knights, carried a cross which was not also the hilt of a sword, instead it was a simple, humble, rough tool of the Passion» (Franco Cardini, Francesco d'Assisi, Mondadori, Milan, 1989, p. 187).
Moreover Francis had as second motivation, which was to bear witness of Christ to the point of martyrdom: «Francis saw the crusade first of all as a chance for martyrdom: and in martyrdom the highest and purest form of Christian witness» (Ivi, p. 188).
In June 1219 Francis embarked for the East and reached Damietta, where he had a peaceful meeting with Sultan Malek Kemel. After returning home he summarised his missionary experience in a chapter of the Regola non bollata (1221): «The Lord says: “I send you as sheep among wolves. Be prudent as serpents and simple as doves”. Therefore friars who are divinely inspired to go among the Saracens and other infidels, may go with the permission of their minister and servant (...). Friars who go among the infidels may behave spiritually in their midst in two manners. One manner is that they shall avoid any argument or dispute and be subject to every human creature for love of God and they shall confess they are Christians. The other manner is, when they see it is pleasing to the Lord, they shall announce the word of God that they (infidels) may believe in God the almighty Father and Son and Holy Spirit, creator of all things, and in the Son redeemer and saviour, and that they may be baptised and become Christians, because unless a man is born again of water and the Holy Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God» (Regola non bollata, XVII, 42-43 in Fonti Francescane, [new edition by Ernesto Caroli], Editrici Francescane, Padova, 2004, pp. 75-76).
In these words of Francis there is the whole theology of mission, valid still today. The witness of the baptised is still rooted today in a clear personal identity accompanied by an attitude of respect, charity and freedom to announce the Christian truth. (8 - end) (Agenzia Fides 4/4/2008; righe 76, parole 966)
