A Dialogue with Marxists

From Marx to Mao, Communists have belabored religion as the opiate of masses. From Pius IX to Paul VI, Roman Popes have denounced the evils of Communism. Last week, at the arch bishop's palace in Salzburg, Austria, 250 scholars from both sides of the argument concluded an amicable symposium on Christianity and Marxism.

The meeting, sponsored by West Germany's Paulist Society for Christian lay men, included such topnotch theologians as Jesuit Karl Rahner and Herbert Vorgrimler of Freiburg as well as three observers from a new Vatican secretariat for nonbelievers, which is headed by Franziskus Cardinal Konig of Vienna. The major Communist speakers were French Party Theoretician Roger Garaudy and one of Bulgaria's ranking ideologues, Asari Polikarov.

Walking the Same Road. "Are Marxists uninterested in questions asked by man on the sense of his life and his death, on the requirements of his thoughts and of his heart?" asked Garaudy. "Not at all. If the greatness of religion proves itself in the exigency of answering these questions, the weakness is in pretending to answer them in a way that carries the stigma of insufficiency. The protest of atheism has, for this reason, a cathartic value."

Religion and Marxism, the Communists agreed, can under certain conditions cooperate. One reason, said Dr. Walter Hollitscher of East Berlin's Humboldt University, is that today both are subject to the same forces of history, such as the technological revolution. Lucio Lombardo of the University of Rome suggested that Marxism must grow to include the concept of pluralism. Garaudy proposed that the atheism of Marx was a response to the historic face of religion of his time; in the light of a developing social concern on the part of Christians, Communism might have to re-evaluate its traditional attitude toward religion. After all, as Marx himself admitted, Communism is the "profane realization" of the "human base of Christendom," said Garaudy. "In 1965 we can ask, 'Do not the most advanced Christians begin to walk on the same road as we do?' " . Some of the Catholic scholars were doubtful. Asked Jesuit Rahner: "What guarantees can Communism give that when it comes to power it will not persecute the church as it has done in the past?" Physiologist Hans Schaefer of Heidelberg noted that there seemed to be more signs of change in Catholicism than in Communism. "In most of the speeches one hears, Marx, Engels and Lenin are still the basis for most of the ideas. If we are to move forward in our discussions, it would seem wise for Marxists also to remember that the scientific world has progressed to the point where it makes sense to look again at all their premises." Garaudy acknowledged that the world 200 years hence will expect more of Marxism, and that it "would be all the poorer if it did not share in the knowledge of great men such as St. John of the Cross."

Good Beginning. To one observer from the Vatican secretariat, the meeting was "a good beginning." Father Erich Kellner of Munich, organizer of the conference, thinks so too, and will try to convene another session next year with a wider assortment of Red thinkers. For their part, the Marxists were also willing to carry on. "What did we get out of it?" said one. "Well, we decided it is really worthwhile to have more meetings. While this might not sound like much, it is a major step forward when you remember the atmosphere of ten years ago."

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