"The Church Cannot Blush"

Is religious tolerance simply a matter of fair play? U.S. Protestants who think so often boil with indignation at the Roman Catholic Church, which accepts the advantages of tolerance in non-Catholic countries but sternly discourages other faiths in areas where Catholics are in the majority.

One of the newest and clearest statements of the Catholic position appeared recently in Rome in the Jesuits' fortnightly La Civilit`a Cattolica. Excerpts are quoted in this week's Christian Century:

"The Roman Catholic Church, convinced, through its divine prerogatives, of being the only true church, must demand the right to freedom for herself alone, because such a right can only be possessed by truth, never by error. As to other religions, the church will certainly never draw the sword, but she will require that by legitimate means they shall not be allowed to propagate false doctrine. Consequently, in a state where the majority of the people are Catholic, the church will require that legal existence be denied to error, and that if religious minorities actually exist, they shall have only a de facto existence without opportunity to spread their beliefs. If, however, actual circumstances . . . make the complete application of this principle impossible, then the church will require for herself all possible concessions . . .

"In some countries, Catholics will be obliged to ask full religious freedom for all, resigned at being forced to cohabitate where they alone should rightfully be allowed to live. But in doing this the church does not renounce her thesis . . . but merely adapts herself . . . Hence arises the great scandal among Protestants . . . We ask Protestants to understand that the Catholic church would betray her trust if she were to proclaim . . . that error can have the same rights as truth . . . The church cannot blush for her own want of tolerance, as she asserts it in principle and applies it in practice."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.