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Olde Tyme Religion
Evangelii Gaudium on Islam: Outreach or Overreach?
2014-01-08
by William Kilpatrick

[CrisisMagazine]
The tagline on the website heading, as you'll notice if you go to the link to read the rest of the op-ed, is "A voice for the faithful Catholic laity." Pope Francis, with his emphasis on restoring the joy to faith and expressing it in evangelization, is thus far very polarizing to those who care about the views of the Catholic church, faithful and non-Catholics alike. Herewith a longer than usual exerpt, to encourage you, Dear Reader, to go read the whole thing. It's a nice round-up of the things we've been discussing here at Rantburg for years.
Much attention has been paid to Pope Francis' observations about economic life in Evangelii Gaudium. Relatively little attention, however, has been paid to the pope's remarks about Islam in the same document, even though they may turn out to be of much greater consequence. One sentence in particular needs to be called into question. When writing about interreligious dialogue between Christians and Muslims, Pope Francis cautions against "hateful generalizations about Islam," for "authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence" (253).
That would be section #253 of Evangelii Gaudium. No doubt popes can be succinct, though this thing is not evidence of it.
This sweeping statement would be difficult to justify even if the pope were speaking about the Bible. It would not be an easy task to make the case that even a proper reading of the Bible is opposed to every form of violence. To make that case for the Koran, which is filled with encouragements to violence, is more problematic still.

The pope's generous statement about Islam is in line with similar statements by various world leaders who assure us that whenever violence is committed in the name of Islam, such violence has nothing to do with Islam. Since these statements are so contrary to the evidence of Islamic texts as well as to the reality of widespread persecution of non-Muslims in the name of Islam, we have to conclude that they are made either for strategic reasons or else because the leaders are badly advised.

Whoever the pope turned to for advice, it was most probably not fellow Jesuit Samir Khalil Samir, an expert on Islamic theology and history and a close adviser to Pope Benedict XVI. Fr. Samir is not nearly as sanguine about the peaceful nature of Islam as Pope Francis. Take this exchange from a book-length interview with two Italian journalists published in 2002 (translated as 111 Questions about Islam). Question: "In the Western world ... people often say that the mujahidin are not true Muslims, that their actions are contrary to the spirit of Islam, that Islam etymologically means 'peace' and 'tolerance,' and so on. Is this opinion correct?" His answer? "Most Westerners who accept these statements usually know very little about Islam. So they willingly accept these erroneous theories coming from Muslim sources" (65).

As any number of commentators have remarked, Pope Francis has set a new tone for the papacy--one that is more concerned with outreach to non-Catholics than with issues of doctrine or definition. His statements on Islam in Evangelii Gaudium are in line with that approach: their aim is not accuracy but outreach. It seems that for the sake of improving relations with the Islamic world, the pope has chosen to put the best possible face on Islam. But, sometimes, outreach can result in overreach. And it seems that, in this instance, the pope has overreached himself. As he writes elsewhere in the document, "Ideas disconnected from realities give rise to ineffectual forms of idealism" (232). In presenting this idealistic view of Islam, the pope has ignored a great many realities.

William Kilpatrick taught for many years at Boston College. He is the author of several books about cultural and religious issues, including Psychological Seduction; Why Johnny Can't Tell Right From Wrong; and, most recently, Christianity, Islam and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West. Professor Kilpatrick's articles on Islam have appeared in Catholic World Report, National Catholic Register, Aleteia, Saint Austin Review, Investor's Business Daily, FrontPage Magazine, and other publications.
Posted by:trailing wife

#3  Francis is not even close to being as intellectual, direct, or realistic as either of his predecessors. Benedict was truly a scholar. And JP II was very direct about capitalism versus communism, etc. but despite all that, Francis has still been very orthodox - he just tends to speak too carelessly and imprecisely which allows broad misinterpretations.
Posted by: OldSpook   2014-01-08 22:12  

#2  Pope Francis cautions against “hateful generalizations about Islam,” for “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence”

Well Holy Father, you'd best tell the muslims ASAP they are not interpreting their Qur'an properly. It's worth a shot. See what it gets you.
Posted by: JohnQC   2014-01-08 09:21  

#1  "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Ooops sorry, another Pope
Posted by: European Conservative   2014-01-08 05:10  

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