Can Prayer Be Interreligious?

[ 9 ] October 16, 2012 |

Catholic Free Press

I heard a priest advise that before criticizing Vatican II, one should read all sixteen documents from the council. I’ve never had any reason to criticize it, I didn’t even know what it was until long after converting, but I am taking that advice seriously and reading those documents. Ecumenism is a difficult concept, but a critical one in our times.

My studies have also led me to the thought of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. In his book of essays, Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions, the cardinal deals with interreligious prayer, and his explanation wasn’t what I expected.

Some people mistakenly think that interreligious prayer is a form of hospitable ecumenism, that we should accept our neighbor’s form of worship in tolerance and acceptance because those things are loyal to the Gospel message. However, the wise cardinal rejected that idea completely, reminding us about the commissioning of the seventy-two disciples to proclaim the Word of God. They were told to wipe the dust from their feet of any town that rejects the Word.

Shared prayer, he says, would “be a fiction, far from the truth” leading to false interpretation. Think about it. If a Christian prays with a group as if we are all praying to the same gods however any of us imagines them, then the Christian must logically accept that no one can really know God or love God either. He must deny that the living God calls us in a personal way to serve Him. Ultimately, he must deny that man can know the truth.

Praying would cease to be praying, cease to be a dialogue with Someone who sees and hears us, and become a mere form of self-reflection. It would mean that we pray to a god who has no will of his own, and if that were true, then any attempt to convert people to Christ would be a shameless form of religious imperialism. The concept of interreligious prayer contradicts the commission to evangelize.

There is no middle way. The Church’s belief in Christ must be properly understood, He is not a manifestation of the Divine, He is the Divine. The Christian has to resist the idea that all religions are equal, not to make us superior, for no one saves himself, but because we believe Christ the living God demands obedience and conversion. Christ is the Truth, and we are called to dialogue in a bold and educated way that knows legitimate limits, without caving to false pathways.

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Category: Catholic Free Press, Ecumenism

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  1. Showing Respect to Other Religions : Accepting Abundance | October 21, 2012
  1. Richard E says:
    October 16, 2012 at 8:11 pm

    Interesting article. “Shared prayer, he says, would “be a fiction, far from the truth” leading to false interpretation.” I’m wondering how he relates to the gathering of many faiths at the Church of St. Francis Assisi to pray together, usually for peace. His writings are deep, been reading “Pilgram Fellowship of faith’ for a while – little at a time with marker in hand – so wonder if “Truth and Tolerance” would be any easier. The Vatican Docunments take time to read and digest but well structured. Two I spent a lot of time with when in college were the Liturgical docunments and RCIA.

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  2. Stacy Trasancos says:
    October 16, 2012 at 8:19 pm

    Richard, in fact he began that section discussing the two World Days of Prayer for Peace in Assisi. I copied some of it here:

    In the age of dialogue and of the encounter between religions, the question has necessarily arisen as to whether we can pray with each other. Nowadays people make a distinction here between multireligious and interreligious prayer. The model for multireligious prayer is offered by the two World Days of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, in 1986 and 2002. People belonging to various religious affiliations meet together. They have in common an acute concern for the needs of the world and its lack of peace; they share a longing for help from above against the powers of evil, that peace and justice might enter into the world. Hence their intention to give a public sign of this longing, which might stir up all men and strengthen the goodwill that is a condition of peace. Those who meet also know that their understandings of the divine, and hence their way of turning to him, are so varied that shared prayer would be a fiction, far from the truth. They meet to give a sign of their shared longing; but they pray—albeit simultaneously—in separate places, each in his own fashion. “Praying” in the case of an impersonal understanding of God (often associated with polytheism) obviously means something quite different from praying in faith to the one personal God. The distinction is visibly represented, though in such a fashion as to become at the same time a cry for the healing of our divisions.

    Following from Assisi—in 1986 as in 2002—the question was repeatedly and most seriously raised: Can one do this? Does this not give most people a false impression of common ground that does not exist in reality? Does this not promote relativism, the opinion that, fundamentally, the differences that divide “religions” are merely penultimate? And is not the seriousness of faith being undermined thereby and God set farther away from us, in the end, our forsakenness intensified? We should not lightly set aside such questions. There are undeniable dangers, and it is indisputable that the Assisi meetings, especially in 1986, were misinterpreted by many people. It would, on the other hand, be wrong to reject, completely and unconditionally, multireligious prayer of the kind I have described. To me, the right thing in this case seems to be, rather, to link it with conditions corresponding to the demands of inner truth and responsibility for such a great undertaking as the public appeal to God before all the world.

    I see two basic conditions:

    1. Such multireligious prayer cannot be the normal form of religious life but can only exist as a sign in unusual situations, in which, as it were, a common cry for help rises up, stirring the hearts of men, to stir also the heart of God.

    2. Such a procedure almost inevitably leads to false interpretations, to indifference as to the content of what is believed or not believed, and thus to the dissolution of real faith. That is why—as was said in point—these procedures must remain exceptional and why a careful explanation, of what happens here and what does not happen, is most important. This explanation, which must make clear that there is no such thing as “the religions” altogether as such, no such thing as a common concept of God or belief in God, that difference not merely exists in the realm of changing images and concepts but involves ultimate decisions—this explanation is important, not only for those participating in the event itself, but for all who witness it or learn about it in some other way. What is happening must be so clear in itself, and to the world, that it does not become a demonstration of that relativism through which it would nullify its own significance.

    Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal (2009-11-24). Truth And Tolerance (Kindle Locations 1173-1199). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

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  3. Stacy Trasancos says:
    October 16, 2012 at 8:22 pm

    BTW, I don’t find this book easy reading either. I have to re-read things over and over and over. It’s all difficult, but every minute I spend reading it is a minute that I gain some insight…but it is slow progress for sure.

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  4. Stanton Danhiels says:
    October 16, 2012 at 10:40 pm

    I like your article; it emphasizes the importance of faith and prayer. But I also have a question for you; does this mean that I should not respect or acknowledge other religions at all? The differing faiths of my peers and friends, am I not allowed to consider said faiths valid? I have had many conversations with people of different faiths and they generally are willing to accept my faith; should I not be considerate of them and respect what they believe even if I do not agree? I wish to preserve my faith in God, but I also wish to respect others for their faiths as well and do not want people to see the Catholic church as ignorant of the beliefs of others? what do you think?

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  5. Richard E says:
    October 17, 2012 at 12:03 am

    Stacy, thank you for the added info you shared from the book on the gatherings at Assisi, now Pope Benedict XVI held one last year if not mistaken.

    Stanton, as to your question, I would say yes, we don’t know how the Holy Spirit is using them. Look at the Angligan Church with so many leaving and coming into the Catholic Church, even their married priest, in instances whole comunitees have come in, mostly on moral issues within their church. Some years back my parish particpated in ‘interfaith prayer and breakfast’ during Lent on Saturday mornings, moving from one church to the next over the Saturdays of Lent – it ended as one pastor got upset he was loosing some of his members who had attended these services to the Catholic Church. People who are in ministry outside the parish – hospital or prison ministry – do not look so much as to the faith belief they visit as they go more to offer comfort, encouragement and pray with them if they wish.

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  6. Richard E says:
    October 19, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    I’m getting the test message via email but they are not showing up here.

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  7. Stacy Trasancos says:
    October 19, 2012 at 4:02 pm

    Richard, I’m so sorry! I was messing around with the functionality that sends emails to people who want to follow new posts and comments to make sure they are working properly! Looks like they are! :-)

    I trashed the test comments. Sorry for spamming your inbox!

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  8. Richard E says:
    October 19, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    No problem at all, I was thinking was stopping comments from going out when others posted and you were just trying to get the bug worked out. At least you know someone was watching and reading.

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