Religious voicelessness: a challenge to the Catholic Church

Abstract

According to Professor Hans Küng, there will be no peace among nations until there is peace among the religions. People of religious belief constitute the majority of humankind who share the same basic values, such as peace, harmony, justice and neighbourliness. Historically, there has been and there still is apathy, if not antagonism, between people of different religious beliefs. At the Second Vatican Council (1962- 1965) the Catholic Church turned over a new page with an outreach towards the religions of the world. In this article we will firstly look at the development of two original documents which spell out this new attitude towards others. We will then reflect on the present Catholic-Jewish relationship which has been marred for centuries by indifferentism and even hatred. We then take a look at theological developments over the past 50 years concerning the church’s relationship with other world religions, before looking to the way forward into the future.