A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together

Thomas

Thomas

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This week Pope Francis co-signed "A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together", with Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Egypt's al-Azhar mosque and university.

A paragraph in the document, speaking of human freedom, says:
"The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings".

This is not contra to traditional Catholic teaching, but it does open a path to dialogue, and to me the most pressing dialogue — the one that needs most updating and reinterpreting — is on the matter of gender.
 
Who knows?

I would suppose both sides drew up the document between them, agreed by both sides before the signing?
 
How long was the conference to come up with this document... agreement between these two "sides" in this verbiage? How long would that take...

Spidey senses tingling, want to know more... Sounds awfully like two stone tablets carved coming down off the mountain, or the book of Mormon found in copper plates in alien language, I'd like to hear the rest of the story.
 
wil said:
How long was the conference to come up with this document... agreement between these two "sides" in this verbiage? How long would that take...
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The Pope's on his first visit to the Middle East. So PR teams in both camps will be working towards something like this, otherwise the visit just slides off into the ether.

wil said:
Spidey senses tingling, want to know more... Sounds awfully like two stone tablets carved coming down off the mountain, or the book of Mormon found in copper plates in alien language, I'd like to hear the rest of the story.
Click to expand...
Oooh, I think you might be getting a bit carried away here?

The document is just that, it's not doctrine, it's not binding on anyone? It could be likened to a wish-list, looking towards a world we'd like to see? Critics on both sides will suggest the Pope and the Imam sort out their own houses first.

Remember also Catholics are suffering under stiffening Moslem regimes, so there's a lot here in their defence. Also the speaking out against the mis-use of religion.

I highlighted points above as being a sentence worth looking at, but in reality it carries no doctrinal weight.
 
In Germany, a group of theologians have called for Cardinal Marx, head of the German Catholic Church, to reconsider celibacy rules for priests among other "courageous reforms." These include a review of the attitude towards the LGBT community and the ordination of women ...

For the full text of the document, click the link ...
 
wil said:
Somehow I give more weight to that which the pope signs
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It depends what he's signing. This carries no authority even with a papal signature, it's an opinion piece, nothing more.

The letter in Germany will have far more impact within the walls, but as ever, the 'old school' of the curia will resist all and any change, so I don't see their efforts coming to much either.

As for LGBT rights, recognition of women, and above all the role of the laity, for all his popular appeal, Francis is cementing over the cracks in the status quo. I fear that as long as the church is in the grip of old men who think their celibacy gives them some special grace, or deserves special recognition, then we're going to get nowhere.
 
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